Double gold medallist in the last Commonwealth Games, Anisa Sayyed defeated World Cup gold medallist Rahi Sarnobat 7-5 in the final of the women’s 25-metre sports pistol in the selection trials here.
Anisa had topped the qualifiers with a total of 580, two points ahead of Rahi, but the latter had topped the semifinalists with 15, two points ahead of Anisa.
However, once Anisa took a 4-2 lead in the final, winning two of the first three series, she shared the honour in the next three series, splitting the two points every time with the young Olympian, to emerge triumphant.
Surabhi Pathak beat Sonia Rai 7-5 for the third place, after both had shot 12 in the semifinals. Olympian Annu Raj Singh, Gauri, Shradha Prakash and Shweta Chaudhary were the others to make the final. In men’s air pistol, Vijay Singh pipped fellow Army marksman Jitu Rai by 1.8 points as he clinched the first place with a total of 201.3.
National champion Amanpreet Singh was third, while Omkar Singh, Chandraveer Singh, Kapil Kumar, Samaresh Jung and Amit Kumar Pilaniya were placed fourth to eighth respectively.
Meanwhile, after being forced to settle for two second places in air rifle, Olympian Sanjeev Rajput asserted himself in free rifle prone event with a total of 207.9, as he beat World Championship finalist Hariom Singh, by 3.8 points. R. Abemo Kikon was third, while Ravi Kumar, Sushil Ghaley, Rahul Poonia, Satyendra Singh and Sudeep Kumar were placed fourth to eighth in that order.
In women’s rifle prone event, Lajja Gauswami continued to dominate, as she topped with a score of 594, two points ahead of Meena Kumari. Raj Chaudhary, Priyal Keni, Kuheli Gangulee, World champion Tejaswini Sawant, Tejaswini Muley and Shikha Dhall were placed third to eighth respectively.
