Kumar Surendra Singh Championship: Shweta, Amanpreet bag mixed Air Pistol gold

Shweta, who had won the individual women’s top spot in the national selection trials the previous day ahead of the youth brigade, and Amanpreet, provided a consistently high quality fare to outclass the field as they beat Border Security Force (BSF) 16-6, after having led 12-0 at one stage.

Shweta Singh (L) and Amanpreet Singh (R) who won the mixed air pistol gold in the Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship in New Delhi.

It was another golden outing for Shweta Singh, as she, in partnership with Amanpreet Singh, won the mixed air pistol gold for Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) in the 19th Kumar Surendra Singh Shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Friday. Shweta, who had won the individual women’s top spot in the national selection trials the previous day ahead of the youth brigade, and Amanpreet, provided a consistently high quality fare to outclass the field as they beat Border Security Force (BSF) 16-6, after having led 12-0 at one stage. Neeraj Kaur and Sib Kumar Ghosh came up with three sets of good shots to eke out six points and some dignity to their score line, before Shweta and Amanpreet shot 20.9 between them to seal the gold. After the shooters fire a shot each, the combined scores of the two are compared, with the higher score fetching two points, and one point each in case of a tie. The team that reaches 16 first, with a difference of two, wins it. In case of a tie, whoever wins the next round wins the contest.

READ: National Selection Trials: Shweta pips Rhythm for 10m air pistol gold The ONGC team had shot 582 and 581 in the two stages of qualification, which was a class apart from all the other teams in the fray. There was better competition for the bronze medal, as Hemendra Singh Kushwaha and Ruchita Vinerkar clinched the medal by beating Karnav Bishnoi and Yasha Singh of Rajasthan 16-14. After leading 10-4, Railways trailed 12-14 before asserting its firepower in the climax. Yuvika Tomar and Sharvan Kumar did the best for Uttar Pradesh as they won both the juniors and youth gold medals, by beating two different Punjab teams with equal felicity at 16-6 and 16-4. The duo had done well to top qualification in both the stages of both the events. It will be men’s air pistol qualification and finals over the next two days as the championship is scheduled to conclude, with one additional day allotted for fifth selection trials in the same event.  

The results:Mixed air pistol: 1. ONGC (Shweta Singh, Amanpreet Singh) 16 (582, 581); 2. BSF (Sib Kumar Ghosh, Neeraj Kaur ) 6 (573, 565); 3. Railways (Hemendra Singh Kushwaha, Ruchita Vinerkar) 16 (563, 572); 4. Rajasthan (Karnav Bishnoi, Yasha Singh) 14 (563, 563). Juniors: 1. Uttar Pradesh (Yuvika Tomar, Sharvan Kumar) 16 (569, 566); 2. Punjab (Khushseerat Kaur Sandhu, Arshdeep Banga) 6 (565, 554); 3. Haryana (Surbhi Rao, Sarabjot Singh) 17 (565, 564); 4. Gujarat (Mitesh Kumar Manilal, Yashvi Changela) 13 (560, 542). Youth: 1. Uttar Pradesh (Yuvika Tomar, Sharvan Kumar) 16 (571, 574); 2. Punjab (Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu, Simranpreet Kaur Brar) 4 (565, 558); 3. Maharashtra (Janhavi Deshmukh, Tejas Prakash) 16 (558, 567); 4. Tamil Nadu (Mehshaak Ponnudurai, Niveditha Nair) 8 (561, 550).