National selection trials: Fateh Singh Dhillon takes top spot in 50m rifle prone

Fateh Singh Dhillon shoots a total of 623.3 to beat Sanjeev Rajput by 1.4 point; Vijayveer Sidhu excels in 25m standard pistol.

Representative Image: Vijayveer Sidhu topped in the 25m standard pistol, in men and junior men categories. Photo: Sandeep Saxena

Fateh Singh Dhillon secured top spot in the 50-metre rifle prone event in the men’s and junior categories, at the National selection trials held at Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Friday.

In an event that has been dropped from the Olympics, and thus does not feature a final, Fateh Singh shot a total of 623.3 to beat Olympian Sanjeev Rajput by 1.4 point. The margin was a lot bigger in the junior event — Fateh Singh beat Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar by 8.4 points.

Top spot for Vijayveer

In the 25-metre standard pistol, Vijayveer Sidhu shot 579 and beat Olympian Gurpreet Singh by four points to finish at the top.

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Vijayveer beat Anish Bhanwala — the Commonwealth Games gold medallist — by seven points to top the junior event, too.

In the air pistol finals in the junior and youth categories held on Thursday evening, Youth Olympics champion Manu Bhaker and Devanshi Dhama took turns to overtake Esha Singh and Vibhuti Bhatia for the top position. The 13-year-old Esha, who had won the women’s, junior and youth gold medals at the National championship in Thiruvananthapuram, was poised to win the junior event, after having failed to qualify for the women’s final.

Manu Bhaker won the 10m air pistol event among junior women. File Photo: Getty Images

But Manu beat her by 0.4 point, with the last shot of 10.2 to 9.2.

Second spot for Esha

In trying to perfect her shot, Esha tended to cancel her shots and zero in on the bull’s eye afresh, including the last shot. But it did not get the desired result.

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In the youth section, Manu opted to skip the final for the second day in a row. Devanshi Dhama built up a good lead early on, which helped her stay ahead of the pack despite ordinary shots of 7.6 and 8.3 in the business end of the competition.

In the 24-shot final, Esha had to grapple with more than a dozen 9s and an 8, yet made a fight of it to take the second spot.

• 10m air pistol
• Junior women: 1. Manu Bhaker 241.5 (583); 2. Esha Singh 241.1 (566); 3. Vibhuti Bhatia 220.5 (567).
• Youth women: 1. Devanshi Dhama 237.6 (566); 2. Esha Singh 235.5 (566); 3. Vibhuti Bhatia 215.8 (567).

• 25m standard pistol
• Men: 1. Vijayveer Sidhu 579; 2. Gurpreet Singh 575; 3. Arpit Goel 574.
• Junior men: 1. Vijayveer Sidhu 579; 2. Anish Bhanwala 572; 3. Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu 571.

• 50m rifle prone
• Men: 1. Fateh Singh Dhillon 623.3; 2. Sanjeev Rajput 621.9; 3. Subhankar Pramanick 621.8.
• Junior men:1. Fateh Singh Dhillon 623.3; 2. Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar 614.9; 3. Niraj Kumar 614.6.