National shooting selection trials: Ayonika Paul clinches top spot with narrow win

Ayonika Paul shot 249.8 to pip Ayushi Podder by a half point to the top spot in women’s air rifle in the second National shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range.

File picture of Ayonika Paul.

Olympian and World Championship finalist Ayonika Paul shot 249.8 to pip Ayushi Podder by a half point to the top spot in women’s air rifle in the second National shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range.

In the 24-shot final, Ayonika had a good foundation in the first 10 shots and retained the favourable flow to stay on top. She had qualified with a modest score of 627.4, which incidentally was the best score in the women’s field.

The topper in the men’s air rifle event in the first trial, Paarth Makhija was in irrepressible form, shooting 632.1 in qualification, but was pushed to the third spot in the final by Kiran Jadhav and Akhil Sheoran.

Srinjoy Datta was impressive in both qualification (630.7) and final (251.3) as he finished ahead of Rudrankksh Patil and Yash Vardhan.

In junior men’s rapid fire pistol, Vijayveer Sidhu, who had won the silver in the Delhi World Cup this season, finished on top ahead of Adarsh Singh and Anish Bhanwala.