Zeena Khitta of Himachal Pradesh became the new national champion in women’s 10m air rifle after she claimed the gold medal ahead of world-class shooters — Elavenil Valarivan, Apurvi Chandela, Anjum Moudgil and Mehuli Ghosh — at the 63rd National Shooting Championship in Bhopal.
The 19-year-old Zeena shot 627.1 to qualify for the final in the fourth place and then showed nerves of steel to shoot 252.2 in the final to beat Mehuli Ghosh of West Bengal to the gold by 1.7 point.
World record holder and Olympic quota winner Apurvi Chandela of ONGC, who had won two World Cup gold medals this season, took the bronze.
Another quota winner Anjum Moudgil of Punjab (624.1) and World No. 1 Elavaneil Valarivan of Gujarat (623.7) failed to qualify for the final, finishing 20th and 24th respectively.
However Zeena was pushed to the 6th place in the junior category, Commonwealth Games silver medallist Mehuli Ghosh won the gold, 1.7 point ahead of Aakriti Dahiya of Haryana. The bronze was won by Atmika Gupta of Rajasthan.
In the youth category, the gold was won by Janhavi Khanvilkar of Maharashtra. The silver was won by Atmika while Zeena took the bronze.
In 2018, Zeena had won gold at the 1st Khelo India School Games in New Delhi.
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