National shooting selection trials: Shri Nivetha on the mark

Shri Nivetha did her confidence some good by clinching the top position in women’s air pistol final in the seventh National shooting selection trials which concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, on Tuesday.

Shri Nivetha Paramanantham clinched the top position in women’s air pistol final.

Shri Nivetha did her confidence some good by clinching the top position in women’s air pistol final in the seventh National shooting selection trials which concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, here on Tuesday.

On a day when World Cup gold medallist Yashaswini Singh Deswal shot the best qualification score of 583 and consolidated her position in the national team, and Esha Singh overtook the junior world record (243.3) in the final, Shri Nivetha did not help her cause with a score of 576 in the qualification phase.

This was in contrast to the 582 that Nivetha had shot the previous day, that saw her top the qualification chart, but finish second best to Ruchita Vinerkar in the final.

Olympian Annu Raj Singh shot 580 in qualification to consolidate her place in the national squad.

Esha who had swept all the three gold medals in the women’s, junior and youth sections in the last National championship in Thiruvananthapuram as a precocious 13-year-old, slipped to the sixth place in the women’s event, before asserting her class with 244.0, for the junior honour.

In the men’s 25-metre centre fire pistol, Yogesh Singh topped the list with 585, one point ahead of Adarsh Singh.

The top shooters will continue with the national camp at the same venue, as the first of the preparatory training stint for the Asian Championship scheduled to be held in Doha, Qatar, in November.