The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) has accepted a record 1522 entries in the men’s 10m air pistol event and the last details are not likely to emerge before forenoon on Monday. The qualification process to ascertain the top eight contenders — for the junior, youth and men — began last Friday and it appears the technical officials have been stretched to their limit. According to the Director of Competitions for the 60th National Shooting Championship, Ashok Pandit, there are 30 range officials with strong technical soundness and they are assisted by 20 other range officials and also a group of volunteers.
The final of the three groups will be completed by twilight hours on Monday. The 25m Centre Fire Pistol (CFP) - a non-Olympic event - final will also be completed on Monday afternoon. The last day’s proceedings though will start with the final of the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions for juniors and seniors.
A considerable number of shooters have shown their skills and achieved a Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) to be eligible to take part in the long first and second selection trial to be held at the Balewadi Sports Complex here from January 11 to 21, 2017. Sources said there will no wildcard entries for the selection trials. The first ISSF World Cup in 2017 for rifle, pistol and shotgun will be held in New Delhi from February 22 to March 4.
The Army shooters have taken four slots in the top eight, who would compete for the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions honours. They are Chain Singh, Satyendra Singh, Surendra Singh Rathod, Imran Hasan Khan. The others in the fray are Rahul Poonia (Navy), Swapnil Kusale (Railways), Deepak Kumar (Air Force) and Akhil Sheoran (Uttar Pradesh). In all 69 of the 73 shooters completed the event.
Madhya Pradesh’s Syed Araib Parvez, Anil Kumar, Harshit Binjwa, Tamil Nadu’s Sarvesh Swaroop Shankar, Ajaey Nithish, Kerala’s Rithik Gireesh, West Bengal’s Subhankar Pramanick and Haryana’s Nishant Dalal will vie for the individual junior medals.
Results (all 50m rifle 3 positions) Men: Team: 1. Army Marksmanship Unit-AMU (Chain Singh, Surendra Singh Rathod,Imran Hasan Khan) 3488.0, 2. Navy (Rahul Poonia, Nigam Prasad Parida, G. Purusothaman) 3462.0, 3. Air Force (Deepak Kumar, Parul Kumar, Mahesh Kumar) 3443.0.
Civilian: 1. Swapnil Kusale (Rlys) 1159, 2. Akhil Sheoran (Uttar Pradesh) 1157, 3. Navdeep Singh Rathore (Madhya Pradesh) 1152
Civilian Team: 1. Madhya Pradesh (Navdeep Singh Rathore, Syed Araib Parvez, Goldi Gurjar ) 3414.0, 2. Railways (Swapnil Kusale, Fulchand Bangar, Vishwajeet Shinde) 3413.0, 3. Tamil Nadu ( Sarvesh Swaroop Shankar, P. Ajaey Nithish, C.Sam George Sajan) 3356.0..
Junior Team: 1. Madhya Pradesh (Syed Araib Parvez, Harshit Binjwa, Amit Kumayu) 3366.0, 2. Tamil Nadu (Sarvesh Swaroop Shankar, P. Ajaey Nithish, C.Sam George Sajan) 3356.0, 3. Kerala (Rithik Gireesh, Sreechirag Mukundan, T.H.Abijith) 3344.0
