Saurabh Chaudhary's dream run continues

Saurabh shot 243.0 in the final to beat Omkar by 2.1 points, after having topped the qualification with a commendable score of 586, two points better than that of the all-conquering Jitu Rai, who eventually finished third.

It was the third competition and fifth final over three days for the 15-year-old Saurabh and he beat the experienced Omkar Singh of the Navy for the top spot.

The fairy tale story of Saurabh Chaudhary continued as he put up another sterling performance in the National shooting trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Friday.

It was the third competition and fifth final over three days for the 15-year-old Saurabh from Uttar Pradesh, and he beat the experienced Omkar Singh of the Navy -- who had won three gold medals and a silver in the 2010 Commonwealth Games -- for the top spot.

Saurabh shot 243.0 in the final to beat Omkar by 2.1 points, after having topped the qualification with a commendable score of 586, two points better than that of the all-conquering Jitu Rai who eventually finished third.

Olympian Gurpreet Singh, who had shot 581 in qualification, took the sixth place while another Olympian Prakash Nanjappa -- the latest among the Arjuna awardees in the sport -- placed 20th with 576.

Anmol Jain and Arjun Singh Cheema, who had won the team bronze with Saurabh in the World Junior Championship in Germany earlier this season could muster only 573 and placed 32nd and 33rd respectively.

Quite happy about Saurabh winning both the trials after having won the gold and two silvers earlier in the Kumar Surendra Singh Championship, National junior coach Jaspal Rana pointed out that the young shooter had to go to the jury of appeal to clear the grip of his pistol after it was declared ’not within specifications’ by the technical officials.

"Saurabh is a strong shooter, otherwise he could not have performed this well," said Jaspal, suggesting that any other shooter would have been rattled by the situation.

In women’s rifle prone event, it was Chahat Deep Kaur who topped, 0.6 points ahead of Anjum Moudgil, who had topped the third trial.

Raj Chaudhary got the third place, half a point ahead of N. Gaayathri, while Lajja Gauswami placed 10th with 614.9.

Other leading shooters like Kuheli Gangulee (613.1), Meena Kumari (612.6), Elizabeth Susan Koshy (611.0) and the former World champion in the event, Tejaswini Sawant (610.3) placed 15th, 17th, 20th and 22nd respectively.

The results:

Men:
10m air pistol: 1. Saurabh Chaudhary 243.0 (586); 2. Omkar Singh 240.9
(579); 3. Jitu Rai 218.6 (584).

Women:
50m rifle prone: 1. Chahat Deep Kaur 620.5; 2. Anjum Moudgil 619.9; 3.
Raj Chaudhary 618.5.