Anisa Sayyed improved with every round as she led with a score of 289 at the half way stage in the women’s 25-metre sports pistol event of the 57th National shooting championship at the Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Monday.
The Commonwealth Games double gold medallist shot rounds of 94, 97 and 98 to stay ahead of World Cup medallist Sonia Rai (287) apart from Olympians and World Cup gold medallists Heena Sidhu and Rahi Sarnobat both of whom ended up with 286, along with Anita Devi.
Backed by coach Jaspal Rana, who kept her focused on the task with sound technical advice during the course of the competition, Anisa was able to assert herself in the precision stage. The rapid fire section will be shot on Tuesday, and will be followed by the final.
The best scoreAt the 10-metre range, there was not much change at the top in men’s air pistol, as the 579, shot by Parveen Kumar of Haryana, remained the best score.
Kapil Kumar of Air Force shot 578 to jump into the second place as he also finished strongly with a last round of 100 like Parveen. More than being assured of a berth in the final of the men’s section, Kapil Kumar was rewarded for his efforts with the gold in the junior section in a field of 80.
In the youth section, Samarjit Singh topped with 567 in a field of 135. Anmol Jain took the silver, one point ahead of the Asian Youth Games medallist Shainki Nagar.
The free pistol gold medallist Prakash Nanjappa (574), who had won a World Cup bronze this season in air pistol, was in danger of not making the men’s final in air pistol, even as Commonwealth Games triple gold medallist Omkar Singh (572) slipped out from the top eight.
Asian Games bronze medallist Vijay Kumar, more famous for his rapid fire silver in the London Games, was also below par, as he shot a total of 570, the same as another quality shooter Zakir Khan.
Heavy fogWhile the 25-metre range was affected by heavy fog in the morning, it was worse in the outdoor shotgun ranges. The organisers were forced to restrict the men’s action to only one round instead of two, but they managed to complete two rounds of women’s trap, after having planned to hold just one round.
Defending champion Shreyasi Singh shot rounds of 22 and 23 to be in lead. Olympian Shagun Chowdhary was one point behind following identical rounds of 22.
Snehlata Rajawat, Ria Rajeshwari Kumari and Shikha Bhaduria were on 42 while World Cup silver medallist Seema Tomar was on 41 along with Varsha Tomar and Faisa Khiji.
Among the men, Mansher Singh and Darius Chenai led with perfect rounds of 25, while Birendeep Sodhi, Prithviraj Tondaiman and Kynan Chenai had rounds of 24.
Asian champion and former World champion, Manavjit Sandhu missed two birds towards the end and was on 23, the same as the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Raninder Singh, among many others.
The results: Air pistol: Junior men: 1. Kapil Kumar 578; 2. Arun 571; 3. Karanpratap Singh Randhawa 571.
Youth: 1. Samarjit Singh 567; 2. Anmol Jain 566; 3. Shainki Nagar 565.
