Paarth Makhija of Delhi outgunned Abhinav Shaw of West Bengal 16-4 to win the Men 10m Air Rifle (T1) and then edged out Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar of Rajasthan 16-10 in the junior gold medal match to come out the biggest winner of the day at the ongoing National Selection Trials in Bhopal.
Sandeep of Army and Maddineni Umamahesh of Andhra Pradesh finished third in the Men and Junior Men’s 10m Air Rifle respectively.
Reigning Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat won the Women 25m Pistol (T1) whie Olympian Manu Bhaker won the junior event.
Rahi met Abhidnya Ashok Patil in an all Maharashtra clash for the top position in the Women 25m Pistol and eventually won 19-16 in a thriller. They had warded off the challenge of Rhythm Sangwan of Haryana and local favourite Chinki Yadav in the medal match after the four had come through two semifinals each. Rhythm settled for the bronze.
Manu denied Rhythm yet another win in an all Haryana clash this time in the Junior Women 25m Pistol. Manu prevailed 19-14 in a pulsating encounter.
Over 3300 shooters, including all top shooters of the country, are participating in the year first National Selection Trials in Bhopal, after they had to be postponed from January this year, because of the raging pandemic. Indian teams for the upcoming ISSF World Cup in Baku and Junior World Cup in Suhl are to be selected on the basis of these trials.