Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar shot a score of 588 to claim the gold in Men’s Centre Fire Pistol at 59th National Shooting Championship being held at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, New Delhi.
Vijay finished strongly by shooting 296 in the rapid stage, after having shot 292 in the precision.
The Army shooter will now focus on securing an Olympic quota in the rapid fire pistol at the next month’s Asian Olympic qualification competition at the same venue.
Vijay was happy with his overall performance in this year’s national championship as he finished with two individual medals from the four pistol events he took part in. Earlier Vijay had won the silver in air pistol.
Speaking to indianshooting.com, Vijay said, “This national championship was good for me as I won two individual medals with a great score in centre fire”.
Gurpreet Singh of the Army won the silver while Pemba Tamang, who won the rapid fire pistol gold, beat Harpreet Singh 49-48 in the shoot-off to take the bronze after being tied on 582 to make it a clean sweep for the Army team.
In the junior category, Achal Pratap Singh Grewal won his third gold after having clinched the top spot in air pistol and standard pistol.
The Results:
Men’s 25m Centre Fire Pistol: 1. Vijay Kumar 588; 2. Gurpreet Singh 586; 3. Pemba Tamang 582 (49); 4. Harpreet Singh 582 (48).
Junior Men’s 25m Centre Fire Pistol: 1. Achal Pratap Singh Grewal 562; 2. Shivam Shukla 558; 3. Rushiraj Atul Barot 557.
