Shooting Olympic Trials: Aishwary Tomar, Swapnil Kusale, Anjum Moudgil, Sift Kaur book Paris berth in 50m rifle event

Manu Bhaker, Naveen shine in air pistol finals as race heats up for Paris quotas.

The top two shooters in the women’s and men’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions (3P) events of the on-going Olympic Selection Trials (OST) 3&4 Rifle/Pistol, were identified here today at the M.P. State Shooting Academy ranges after the conclusion of their respective OST T4 qualification rounds.

India’s number one and world record holder Sift Kaur Samra returned a splendid 593, while Olympian Anjum Moudgil finished second to her with a solid 588, as both ensured they would finish 1-2 in the five-woman field irrespective of the result of the finals on Saturday morning. Nishchal (587), Shriyanka Sadangi (580) and Ashi Chouksey (577) finished in the third, fourth, and fifth spots respectively.

In the men’s 3P, local favorite Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar shot a third successive score of 590 or above, to not only top the OST T4 qualifications but also take an unassailable lead at the top of the standings. Swapnil Kusale, one of the first to win a Paris quota back in 2022, was also assured of a second-place finish in the standings on the basis of his first three OST scores, despite finishing fifth on the day with a 573.

Four finals

The day also saw four finals listed in the detail with Manu Bhaker winning the women’s 10M Air Pistol OST T3, edging out Esha Singh by 0.8 with a score of 241.0. The range however was set on fire by Naveen in the men’s 10M Air Pistol OST T3 final, when he shot a score of 246.8, 0.3 above the existing world record score, to sail to victory. Such was his dominance that second-placed Sarabjot Singh was left a huge 4.4 points behind.

Those results however did not change the situation much as Varun Tomar and Rhythm Sangwan continued to lead the field with a tight race brewing up for second place and it will be all to play for, when they line-up for the T4 qualifications on Saturday.

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Ramita Jindal took the first of the two Air Rifle finals, posting 252.6 to edge past Olympian Elavenil Valarivan by 0.5 in the women’s 10M Air Rifle OST T3 event. Nancy was third, going out in a shoot-off to Ela, while Mehuli Ghosh and Tilottama Sen were fourth and fifth respectively.

In the men’s 10M Air Rifle OST T3 final, Sri Karthik Sabari Raj took an early lead in the 24-shot shootout and held on gamely after coming through two shoot-offs for the title against Divyansh Singh Panwar. Both ended on 252.5.

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