Rahi Sarnobat came up with a thrilling fare, but Manu Bhakar was unruffled as she stayed calm to top women’s 25-metre pistol in the sixth National shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Wednesday.
Multiple gold medallist in World Cups, Olympian Rahi was at her fluent best as she got past World Cup gold medallist and former world No.1 Chinki Yadav, and later Abhidnya Patil in back to back shoot-off, to stay in the hunt for the top spot.
The 21-year-old Manu, who had topped qualification with 591, led 34-32 against Rahi before the last series. In the event, both the shooters affixed their stamp of class with perfect-5.
READ: Indians who have qualified for Asian Games 2022
Rahi has been out of the circuit for quite some time owing to ill health and has been slowly retracing her grasp on the 25-metre event. Her qualification score of 573 may not help her cause in terms of making the national team for the World Championships but the Asian Games gold medallist, Rahi was able to show that she had already found her rhythm for the finals.
Niveditha Nair, Shri Nivetha, TS Divya (587) and Pushpanjali Rana were the others to make the final.
It was another spectacular performance that delighted the sparse gathering, when Shriyanka Sadangi delivered 10.7 and 10.8 on the last two shots to beat qualification topper and the winner of the earlier trial, Ramita JIndal (634.8) by 0.8 point for the top spot in women’s air rifle.
Nancy once again climbed to the third place, ahead of Ayushi Podder, Arya Borse, Narmada Nithin, Tilottama Sen and Aayushi Gupta.
In the 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Goldi Gurjar beat Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu by 0.8 point for the top spot, after having topped qualification with 586. Olympians Chain Singh and Deepak Kumar made it to the fifth and sixth spots respectively, while Olympic quota winner Swapnil Kusale opted to skip the final after shooting a modest 578.
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