London Games silver medallist Vijay Kumar continued to rule rapid fire pistol as he beat Mahender Singh of the Border Security Force 27-24 for the top honour in the second set of shooting trials at the Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, here on Sunday.
He secured his place in the Indian squad for the first two World Cups in Changwon and Fort Benning by winning all the three events, including the national championship.
Another Army shooter, Pemba Tamang had to settle for the fifth spot, after having finished second in the first trial. Harpreet Singh and Gurpreet Singh finished third and fourth respectively.
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In men’s 50-metre free rifle 3-position event, Olympic bronze medallist in air rifle, Gagan Narang topped the table with a total of 452.6.
Already a gruelling contest, the 3-position men’s event had become more difficult in the new format, as the eventual winner had to fire 45 shots in all in prone, standing and kneeling positions in the final, after shooting 120 shots in the qualification phase. Earlier, the finalists had to shoot only 10 shots in the standing position.
Sanjeev Rajput was pushed to the fourth spot by Chain Singh (450.3) and Satendra Singh (439.5). Olympian Rajput had topped the qualifiers with a total of 1167, six points ahead of Narang.
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In women’s air pistol, Malaika Goel of Punjab topped the table with 201.2 points as she pipped national record holder Harveen Srao by 0.2 point. While Yashwani, who was awarded zero for the 17th shot, was third Olympian Annu Raj Singh was sixth, Shweta Chaudhary was seventh and World Cup medallist Sonia Rai was fifth.
Sushma Singh was 32nd as she made 368 in the qualification phase, eight points short of the eighth placed finalist, Harveen Srao.