Anjum Moudgil warded off a stiff challenge from three-time Olympian Anjali Bhagwat to clinch the gold in women’s air rifle in the 10th Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Masters shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Sunday.
Anjum, representing NCC, shot 207.2 in the final to beat Anjali for the gold by 1.2 points. She led throughout the final, except for conceding a 0.2 point lead to Anjali after 14 shots. Anjali herself pipped Ayonika Paul by 0.2 point to stay in the race for the gold.
Anjum had qualified in the fourth place for the final, while the top three Ayonika Paul, Pooja Ghatkar and Mampi Das failed to land a medal. Anjali had placed sixth in qualification. National champion Apurvi Chandela qualified in the seventh place and stayed there.
In men’s free rifle prone event, national champion Sushil Ghaley won comfortably ahead of Partha Ghosh and Shivaji More, as he beat a strong field in which Olympian Sanjeev Rajput and World Championship finalist Hariom Singh failed to win a medal. Ghaley topped the qualifiers with a score of 617.3 and shot 206.5 in the final.
In the 25-metre centre fire pistol, Pemba Tamang beat Vijay Kumar by three points with a total of 582.
The results: Men: 50m free rifle prone: 1. Sushil Ghaley 26.5 (617.3); 2. Partha Ghosh 204.6 (612.7); 3. Shivaji More 181.6 (608.2). Juniors: 1. Navdeep Singh Rathore 616.1; 2. Aman Walia 612.7; 3. Swapnil Suresh Kusale 607.0. 25m centre fire pistol: 1. Pemba Tamang 582; 2. Vijay Kumar 579; 3. Omkar Singh 576. Juniors: 1. Manpreet Singh 568; 2. Sunil Gurung 544; 3. Ajitesh Kaushal 536.
Women: Air rifle: 1. Anjum Moudgil 207.2 (413.0); 2. Anjali Bhagwat 206.0 (412.3); 3. Ayonika Paul 185.4 (416.2). Juniors: 1. Mampi Das 413.4; 2. Anjum Moudgil 413.0; 3. Apurvi Chandela 412.1. Youth: 1. Mampi Das 413.4; 2. Trisha Mukherjee 409.4; 3. Anuradha Mahadev Khude 408.5.
