Olympian, World Cup gold medallist and the reigning Asian champion Sanjeev Rajput proved too good for the rest of the field as he won the men’s 3-position gold in the Sardar Sajjan Singh Sethi Masters shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, here on Tuesday.
The 32-year-old Sanjeev beat Chain Singh of Army by 5.1 points for the gold. The Navy marksman who has a national record 1176 against his name, qualified with a score of 1155, following 388 in kneeling, 389 in prone and 378 in standing positions.
In the final, Sanjeev led Ravi Kumar of Air Force by 7.2 points after 30 shots in kneeling and prone. He was 10.6 points ahead of Chain Singh after 10 more shots in the standing position, in the energy-sapping final that features 45 shots.
Despite shooting the 8s in three of the last five shots, Sanjeev had built such a lead that he cruised to the gold, ahead of Chain Singh even as Ravi Kumar, the air rifle champion, edged past Satyendra Singh by 0.1 point for the bronze.
Gurpreet shines
In the 25-metre standard pistol, Gurpreet Singh won the gold with a total of 570. The rapid fire pistol silver medallist, Gurpreet started strongly with 196 in the 150-second series and followed that up with 191 and 183 in the 20-second and 10-second series respectively.
Wazeer Singh Rathee of Border Security Force (BSSF) beat Harpreet Singh of Navy in the shoot-off 49 to 47 for the silver medal, after the two had tied on 565. Omkar Singh missed a medal by one point.
Ajitesh Kaushal of Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) captured the standard pistol junior gold, and followed that up with the junior men’s 25m sports pistol gold.
The results:
Men: 50m free rifle 3-position: 1. Sanjeev Rajput 454.1 (1155); 2. Chain Singh 449.0 (1145); 3. Ravi Kumar 431.7 (1148).
Juniors: 1. Navdeep Singh Rathore 1133; 2. R. Andrew Kom 1117; 3. Aadesh K. Chetty 1102.
25m standard pistol: 1. Gurpreet Singh 570; 2. Wazeer Singh Rathee 565 (49); 3. Harpreet Singh 565 (47).
Juniors: 1. Ajitesh Kaushal 559; 2. Manpreet Singh 535; 3. Sunil Gurung 533.
25m sports pistol: Junior men: 1. Ajitesh Kaushal 578; 2. Manpreet Singh 570; 3. Sunil Gurung 548.
