Former world champion Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Olympians Anish Bhanwala and Sift Kaur Samra, won the new year’s first trial (T1) matches in their respective rifle and pistol events for Group A shooters at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range (DKSSR) in the national capital on Sunday.
Rudrankksh was in-fact in scintillating form, shooting 254.9, 0.4 over the existing finals world record, in the men’s 10m Air Rifle final to win it.
Haryana’s Anish won the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP) T1 final with a score of 35 while Punjab’s Sift Kaur Samra was the third winner of the day, shooting 465.6 in the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) final to record a yet another win.
Rudrankksh brooked no opposition in the men’s air rifle on the day, first topping qualification with a superb 633.3, 0.9 ahead of Olympian Arjun Babuta, and then posted a wire-to-wire finals victory over the same competitor.
Arjun was way behind (2.3 points) for silver in the 24-shot showdown. Andhra’s Umamahesh Maddineni won bronze.
Anish, as has been for a while now, was a facile winner in the men’s RFP. He qualified third for the six-man final with a score of 581 and then shot two perfect series of 5-hits in the eight 5-shot series decider, to ensure all others were always playing catch up.
Rajasthan’s Bhavesh Shekhawat came in second with 34-hits, while Punjab’s Vijayveer Sidhu won bronze.
In the third final of the day, Sift Kaur Samra, who like Anish is fresh from a National Games gold last week, shot confidently in the women’s 3P to leave Haryana’s Himani Poonia 2.3 points behind in second.
Punjab’s Olympian Anjum Moudgil won the bronze.
Earlier, Odisha’s Shriyanka Sadangi topped the women’s 3p qualification with an excellent score of 594. Sift had bagged the seventh qualification spot with a score of 589.
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