Anish Bhanwala dominates 25m rapid-fire pistol, Karthik Sabari Raj clinches top spot in 10m air rifle

In the women’s 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Nischal beat Lajja Gauswami by 0.4 points for the top spot, after having qualified in eighth with 585.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: Anish Bhanwala during the 25m rapid fire pistol event during the 2018 Commonwealth games at Gold Coast. | Photo Credit: REUTERS

Anish Bhanwala was in irresistible form as he beat Bhavesh Shekhawat 35-29 for the top spot in the 25-metre rapid-fire pistol event in the fourth National shooting selection trials at the Dr Karni Singh Range, Tughlaqabad, on Sunday.

After qualifying on top with 584, one point ahead of Olympian Gurpreet Singh, who eventually slipped to fifth, Anish shot 35 of the maximum possible 40 points in the eight five-shot series final.

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Only after he had assured himself of the top spot, taking an unbeatable 8-point lead before the last series, did the 20-year-old Anish shoot a three. Otherwise, he had four 5s and three 4s. Anhad Jawanda took the third spot ahead of Neeraj Kumar. Arpit Goel struggled with his timing in the 4-second series and ended up sixth.

In a top class field of some of the best in the world in air rifle, Sri Karthik Sabari Raj was brilliant to clinch the top spot 0.2 point ahead of Hriday Hazarika, in a spectacular final. Sri Karthik had topped qualification with 633.5.

Arjun Babuta was third, ahead of world champion Rudrankksh Patil, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, Harshit Binjwa and Vijay Singh. Former world No.1 Divyansh Singh Panwar did not shoot the final owing to a malfunction, after having shot 632.3 in qualification.

In the women’s 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Nischal beat Lajja Gauswami by 0.4 points for the top spot, after having qualified in eighth with 585. Olympian Anjum Moudgil missed qualification for the final by one point.

Sift Kaur Samra who had topped qualification with 592 out of 600, placed fourth behind Shriyanka Sadangi. Ayushit Podder (590), Manini Kaushik (587), Surabhi Rapole (588) and Bhakti Bhaskar Khamkar (587) were the others to make the final.

The results:

10m air rifle:

Men: 1. Sri Karthik Sabari Raj 633.5 (253.2); 2. Hriday Hazarika 253.0 (632.1); 3. Arjun Babuta 231.5 (630.9).

Juniors: 1. Maddineni Uma Mahesh 253.8 (629.8); 2. Dhanush Srikanth 251.4 (626.9); 3. Darius Saurastri 229.8 (627.1).

25m rapid fire pistol:

Men: 1. Anish Bhanwala 35 (584); 2. Bhavesh Shekhawat 29 (572); 3. Anhad Jawanda 22 (577).

Juniors: 1. Agneya Kaushik 27 (569); 2. Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu 25 (576); 3. K Tanishq Naidu 19 (576).

50m rifle 3-position:

Women: 1. Nischal 457.7 (585); 2. Lajja Gauswami 457.3 (591); 3. Shriyanka Sadangi 446.7 (587).

Juniors: 1. Nupur kumrawat 452.3 (580); 2. Nikita Kundu 450.6 (582); 3. Sharanya Lakhan 440.3 (580).