Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar shot a perfect 5 in the tie-break to pip Pemba Tamang (4) in the shoot-off for first place in rapid fire pistol in the selection trials on Saturday.
It was an impressive performance not just by Vijay, but also by Tamang and C.K. Chaudhary who made it a lively affair by stretching the Olympic medallist.
In fact, all three were tied on 24 and it needed two rounds of shoot-off to eliminate Chaudhary. In the battle for the top spot, Vijay and Tamang were again tied on 27 as they shot 3 each. However, Vijay was at his scintillating best in the shoot-off.
In men’s 50-metre rifle 3-position, Olympian Sanjeev Rajput clinched the top spot with a total of 453.8, beating Surendra Rathod by four points.
The Olympic bronze medallist in air rifle, Gagan Narang topped the qualifiers’ list with 1160 compared to 1142 by Rajput. However, Narang finished sixth in the knock-out final, ahead of Imran Hasan Khan.
Chain Singh of Army was third with 437.1 after having a total of 1152 in the qualifiers.
In women’s air pistol, Sushma Singh topped a strong field which did not have Olympian Heena Sidhu, who had married another prominent shooter, Ronak Pandit, recently.
Sushma shot 198.1 in the final to pip Malaika by 0.1 point after 20 shots. Olympian Annu Raj Singh was third with 177.9 while Shweta Chaudhary and Harveen Srao failed to make the final.
