Suruchi trumps strong field to win air pistol trials
Haryana's Suruchi Phogat wins 10m air pistol trials, defeating Manu Bhaker. She scored 586 in qualification and 246.5 in the final.
New Delhi: Continuing her hot streak, Haryana’s teenage pistol shooter Suruchi Phogat beat a high-quality field that included double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker to win the 10m air pistol selection trials at the Karni Singh Range on Thursday.
Suruchi topped the qualification round with a score of 586. Asian Games champion Palak was second with 584 and Manu qualified at third place (581).
The 18-year-old Haryana girl, then, took things up a notch in the 24-shot final scoring a brilliant 246.5 to take the first place. Her score was just 0.5 below the existing world mark. Chandigarh’s Sainyam who came second was far off (241.5) Suruchi. Manu, who was competing in her first event since Paris Olympics, finished third.
Suruchi has been the find of the season as she swept three individual titles across youth, junior, and senior categories in the National Championships. She followed it up with a similar commanding show to claim gold at the National Games. The second selection trials in air pistol will be held on Friday.
The teams for the season’s first two World Cups will be selected based on the two selection trials. Manu has shown good form in the trials so far in both 25m pistol and air pistol events. In all three trials so far, she has finished on the podium.
In men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P), Navy’s Kiran Ankush Jadhav, who won the National title this year, finished on top with a tally of 460.0 points. Akhil Sheoran of Uttar Pradesh was 0.2 behind in second and Army marksman Chain Singh finished third.
In men’s 10m air pistol event, Army’s Varun Tomar emerged victorious (243.2) followed by Ajendra Singh Chauhan and Rajasthan’s Amit Sharma.
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