Khelo India Youth Games Champion: India’s international shooters Ramita Jindal, Swapnil Kusale and Anish Bhanwala, emerged triumphant on day two of the national rifle/pistol selection trials 1, currently underway at the Karni Singh Shooting range. Ramita won the women’s 10m air rifle trial 1 in a close encounter with Haryana state-mate Nancy. Paris quota-winner Anish, was a class apart in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP), while over at the only final to be played at the 50m range, Swapnil, yet another Paris quota-winner, halted a Haryana sweep, registering a facile win in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event.
Ramita was behind in the qualifications to both Nancy, who topped with a sizzling 634.9 and third-placed Swarnali Roy of West Bengal. Her 630.4 placed her fourth, but she was solid throughout the final, only losing the lead by 0.1 once to a late surge from Nancy after the 20th shot. That extended to 0.3 after the 22nd, but two solid 10.8 and 10.6 to close out, meant she clinched it by 0.5 in the end.
There was no stopping Anish in the men’s RFP however. After shooting a solid 588 over two days of qualifications to top it, he began Tuesday’s final with four hits in the first of eight series of five rapid-fire shots in the final.
That put him in joint lead with Uttar Pradesh’s Ankur Goel. None of the other five finalists including Olympian Gurpreet Singh, was able to match his consistency though as the ISSF World Cup Final bronze medallist, rolled out a couple more fours and two perfect fives to take the match with a score of 31. Gurmeet of the Army, was way behind with 25, while Ankur was third with 21 hits.
In the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions, Swapnil representing the Railways, made light work of a finals field which included Olympian Deepak Kumar, India international Niraj Kumar and Khelo India Youth Games Champion Adriyan Karmakar, among others.
His final score of 463.0, was a huge 3.5 ahead of second-placed Nikhil Tanwar of Gujarat. Niraj of the Navy came third while Adriyan was fourth. Swapnil had earlier also topped the qualifications with a huge margin of four points, posting a score of 593.
