Sift Kaur Samra came to the 66th National Shooting Championship with a reputation to defend. Not only was she the defending champion in women’s 50m rifle three positions, in a short span the 22-year-old has built an awesome reputation on the world stage that fits well with her World No 7 tag.
Sift won an Olympic quota at the Baku World Championship, and followed up with gold at the Asian Games with a world record of 469.6 in 50m rifle three positions. More glory was in store in Hangzhou as she had silver to her name in the team event.
For one who started competing on the world stage in 2021, the recent run makes for impressive reading, but also raises expectations from the athlete.
Sift proved again that she is a name for the big stage by defending her title at the Karni Singh Shooting Range on Wednesday by upstaging her hugely experienced Punjab teammate Anjum Moudgil. The medal added to Sift’s gold in 50m rifle prone on Monday.
In the final, Sift shot 465.7 to Tokyo Olympian Anjum’s 463.8, and the two were followed by Ashi Chouksey of Madhya Pradesh with 452.0, who won three medals at the Asian Games, including an individual bronze.
Haryana’s upcoming talent Nischal Singh was another name to stand out on the day as she shot 595 to top qualification with a national record. Sift was second with 593 giving her second place. Ashi was third with 590 while Anjum was the last name to qualify at eighth with a score of 587.
Another Olympic quota winner Shriyanka Sadangi shot a score of 584 and finished 12th.
At the start of the women’s final, it seemed experience would prevail over youth as Anjum took the lead after the first 15 kneeling positions shots, but Sift took command after the 15 prone shots and never looked back.
Consistency has been Sift’s hallmark this season, particularly in the qualification rounds. She shot 594 at the Asian Games, 592 at the Asian Shooting Championship in Changwon, 590 at the National Games in Goa and the 593 in Delhi is another pointer.
Sift ending the season on a high is an excellent cap to the year that opened with bronze at the ISSF World Cup in Bhopal and gold at the World University Games in Chengdu.
Making an impression too, Nischal first got noticed at the Rio de Janeiro World Cup earlier this year, where the 19-year-old claimed silver for her maiden individual medal in an ISSF competition.
Nischal fnished 4th in the senior category behind Ashi but came back strongly to win the junior gold with a score of 465.9 (595) while Ashi setlled for the silver with 463.2 (590). Gujarat’s Heena Jayeshbhai Gohei took the bronze with 447.4 (586).