Sushil Ghaley of Army looked in his top form as he claimed gold medal in the Men’s 50m Rifle Prone at the ongoing 60th National Shooting Championship at Pune.
As the finals started, Olympian Chain Singh led the top three with Navy’s Rahul Poonia and Navdeep Singh Rathore of Madhya Pradesh following him.
But as the final progressed, Ghaley – who won the same event at the nationals held here in 2011 – took the lead from the 12th shot, although the Indian Navy’s Poonia challenged him till the very end. Ghaley won with score of 207.5.
Rahul Poonia won the silver while Chain Singh settled for the bronze. The defending champion in the event, Swapnil Kusale of Railways finished 5th.
Meghana Sajjanar wins women’s air rifle gold
Meghana Sajjanar surprised a strong field to clinch the women’s air rifle gold.
After qualifying at the top with a score of 416.2 among 276 shooters, the 22-year-old from Karnataka shot 208.2 points to beat Mehuli Ghosh of Bengal by 1.5 point for the gold.
Kiranjit Kaur of Punjab pipped former Asian champion Pooja Ghatkar by 0.6 point for the bronze medal.
Dilreen Gill, former Asian champion and world record holder Suma Shirur, the reigning World University champion Vinita Bhardwaj, and Simrat Chahal placed fifth to eighth.
World Cup Final silver medallist and defending champion who competed in the Rio Olympics, Apurvi Chandela missed the final by 0.6 point with a total of 413.2 while Ayonika Paul who also competed at the Rio Olympics shot 408.2 to finish 60th.
The Results:
Men’s 50m Rifle Prone: Sushil Ghaley (Army) 207.5 (620.8), 2. Rahul Poonia (Navy) 206.9 (620.0), 3. Chain Singh (Army) 184.5 (625.1), 4.Satyendra Singh (Army) 162.8 (619.5), 5. Swapnil Kusale (Railways) 142.2 (621.3), 6. Gagan Narang (Air India) 122.1 (620.3), 7. Navdeep Singh Rathore (Madhya Pradesh) 101.8 (618.4) 8. Ishan Goel 80.1 (Uttar Pradesh) (618.7).
Team: 1. Army Marksmanship Unit 1859.9; 2. Railways 1844.4; 3. Uttar Pradesh 1840.1.
Junior Men’s 50m Rifle Prone: 1. Pruthviraj Ayachi 209.5 (613.8); 2. Niraj Kumar 202.2 (609.1); 3. Fateh Singh Dhillon 180.9 (611.0).
Team: 1. Tamil Nadu 1824.1; 2. Uttar Pradesh 1821.3; 3. Telangana 1807.7.
Women’s 10m Air Rifle: 1. Meghana Sajjanar (Karnataka) 208.2 (416.2), 2. Mehuli Ghosh (West Bengal) 206.7 (415.6), 3. Kiranjit Kaur (Punjab) 185.3 (414.0), 4. Pooja Ghatkar (Maharashtra) 165.2 (415.5), 5. Dilreen Gill (Punjab) 413.9, 6. Suma Shirur (Railways) 121.0 (414.1), 7. Vinita Bhardwaj (Haryana) 101.0 (414.5), 8. Simrat Chahal (Rajasthan) 80.2 (415.).
Team: 1. Punjab 1239.7; 2. Maharashtra 1239.6; 3. Rajasthan 1238.0.
Juniors Women’s 10m Air Rifle: 1. Mehuli Ghosh 207.7 (415.6); 2. Dilreen Gill 206.2 (413.9); 3. Mihika Poore 184.0 (413.8).
Team: 1. Punjab 1234.0; 2. Madhya Pradesh 1230.7; 3. West Bengal 1228.2.
Youth Women’s 10m Air Rifle: 1. Manini Kaushik 207.6 (411.2); 2. Mehuli Ghosh 206.9 (415.6); 3. Mihika Poore 184.0 (413.8).
Team: 1. Rajasthan 1229.3; 2. West Bengal 1228.2; 3. Gujarat 1226.5.
