National shooting selection trials: Bhavesh Shekhawat emerges winner in final

After a hesitant start in the final, Bhavesh shot three successive perfect rounds of 5, to beat Arpit Goel 32-27 in the selection trials that concluded on Monday.

The Indian teams for the World Cups will be selected partly on the basis of the scores from the four trials.

Bhavesh Shekhawat of Rajasthan was quite gutsy in topping the second match of men’s 25-metre rapid fire pistol event in the National shooting selection trials that concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Monday. After being tied with Anish Bhanwala for the sixth and last spot for the final with 576, and progressing past the Commonwealth Games gold medallist, on the basis of more number of inner-10s, Bhavesh was a class act in the final. After a hesitant start in the final, Bhavesh shot three successive perfect rounds of 5, to beat Arpit Goel 32-27. Arpit stumbled in the end after a strong start. Adarsh Singh was third while qualification topper and the winner ofthe first trial, Olympian Gurpreet Singh settled for the fifth spot. Gurpreet did shoot 580 once again and that should serve him well.

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Neeraj Kumar and Harpreet Singh were the others to make the final. In the women’s rapid fire pistol event, Aakanksha Bansal topped with 548, four points better than Arunima Gaur. The winner of the first trial, Niveditha Nair, stumbled to the 12th spot with 503, as the women struggled to get a grip over the new event. Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has announced that the second set of two trials for rifle and pistol would be held at the Dr. Karni Singh Range from February 8 to 14. The Indian teams for the World Cups will be selected partly on the basis of the scores from the four trials. The results: 25m rapid fire pistol Men: 1. Bhavesh Shekhawat 32 (576); 2. Arpit Goel 27 (577); 3. Adarsh Singh 23 (579). Women: 1. Aakanksha Bansal 548; 2. Arunima Gaur 544; 3. Tejaswani 542.