Shooter Abhishek Verma tops the charts

Abhishek, who won the mixed gold with Yashaswini Deswal did his averages a world of good by shooting 585 in qualification and then beating Deepak Sharma, Jitu Rai and Amanpreet Singh to the top in the fifth trials.

Abhishek Verma climbed to the top of the merit list during the Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship and National trials.

He has not represented the country yet, but Abhishek Verma could spearhead the Indian men’s air pistol team in the World Championship and the Asian Games as he climbed to the top of the chart with a fine performance in the 18th Kumar Surendra Singh championship and the fifth National selection trials which concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad on Sunday.

Abhishek, who won the mixed gold with Yashaswini Deswal and was placed third in the competition behind Deepak Sharma and Om Prakash Mitharval on Saturday, did his averages a world of good by shooting 585 in qualification and then beating Deepak Sharma, Jitu Rai and Amanpreet Singh to the top in the fifth trials.

Saurabh Choudhary who shot 589 in qualification was figuring in the second place ahead of Shahzar Rizvi who had shot a gold and a silver in the World Cup this season.

A third place in the overall merit list may mean missing the Asian Games, which will have only two entrants per event, but it will be up to the selection committee to weigh the options.

In men’s rifle 3-position event in the trials, Parul Kumar topped ahead of Swapnil Kusale and Olympian Chain Singh, while it was World Cup silver medallist Lajja Gauswami who topped among the women ahead of KC Hema and Shreya Saksena.

Interestingly, Anjum Moudgil who has a world record 1180 against her name tops the women’s 3-position averages with Gaayathri NIthyanandam and Shreya Saksena following her in that order.

In men’s 3-position event, Sanjeev Rajput, Akhil Sheoran and Swapnil Kusale are in the top-3 of the overall averages.

Results: 10m air pistol: Youth men: 1. Ashish Kumar Dodhwal 236.3 (569); 2. Monu Kumar 231.9 (575); 3. Arpit Tomar 215.2 (571). Trial-5: 50m rifle 3-position: Men: Parul Kumar 455.1 (1152); Swapnil Kusale 453.4 (1163); Chain Singh 440.5 (1157) Junior men: Abhay Kumar Goel 445.3 (1136); Yash Padloskar 441. 4 (1126); B. Mithlesh 422.5 (1139) Women: Lajja Gauswami 453.4 (1153); KC Hema 453.1 (1152); Shreya Saksena 442.7 (1166) Junior women: G. Varshaa 441.6 (1117); Mansi Singh 437.3 (1115); Yashika Shinde 426.2 (1116) 10m air pistol: Men: Abhishek Verma 244.0 (585); Deepak sharma 239.8 (581); Jitu Rai 218.2 (581) Junior Men: Himanshu Tanwar 240.7 (578); Manish Narwal 238. 2 (578); Monu Kumar 217.7 (575) Youth men: Monu Kumar 244.1 (575); Harsh Gutpa 242.2 (572); Manish Narwal 218.5 (578)