Sharvan Kumar shoots more than Saurabh Chaudhary's world record

It was a vibrant climax in the men’s air pistol event, as Sharvan trailing by 0.6 points against Gaurav Rana, bridged the gap with shots of 10.5 and 10.7.

Sharvan Kumar (left) who topped the juniors and youth air pistol events, and Gaurav Rana who pipped him by 0.1 point for the men's top spot in the National shooting selection trials in Delhi on Monday.

Sharvan Kumar missed the top honour in men’s air pistol by 0.1 points to Gaurav Rana, but asserted his overwhelming supremacy by emerging on top in both the junior and youth events as the fifth National shooting selection trials concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Monday.

It was a vibrant climax in the men’s event, as Sharvan trailing by 0.6 points against Gaurav Rana, bridged the gap with shots of 10.5 and 10.7.

Ravinder Singh who had topped qualification with 585 finished eighth, while Sarvan Singh the second best in qualification with 583, placed third.

A second year student of Digambar Jain College in Baraut, who trains on his own, Sharvan Kumar showed his class in the junior final by avenging his defeat to Gaurav Rana, beating him by a resounding margin of 5.6 points, with a total of 248.6.

It may be noted that the world records for men and juniors is held by Saurabh Chaudhary at 245.0 and 246.3 respectively.

Quite remarkably, Sharvan had the energy to keep shooting the high 10s in the youth final later, for a total of 247.9, as he beat Sarabjot Singh by three points, shooting 21 tens out of 24 shots in the final.

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The qualification scores matter a lot and Sharvan may have to step up on the score of 581, to fancy his chances of making the national team, in the future.

Sharvan had three other shooters from Uttar Pradesh for company in the final, which gave a hint about the wave that Saurabh, the World Junior champion, Youth Olympics champion and Asian Games gold medallist, has caused in the region.

Vivek and Monu Kumar of Uttar Pradesh placed third and fourth respectively, while Naveen placed fifth ahead of World junior champion Arjun Singh Cheema. Adil Khan was other shooter from Uttar Pradesh, while Nikhil Chandila was the third from Haryana behind Sarabjot and
Naveen.

Even the junior field had four from Uttar Pradesh, while Sharvan was the lone Uttar Pradesh finalist in the men's event, in which he lost the top spot to Gaurav Rana of Air Force by 0.1 point.

''Initially my heart rate was high. But, once I settled down, I was able to shoot the best'', said Sharvan.