NRAI Trials 1 and 2: Check out all rifle results

The NRAI Selection Trials 1 and 2 were held in Bhopal from 8th March to 30th March. These were the first NRAI trials of 2022 and the first to be held under the new finals format introduced by the ISSF.

The rifle discipline in India has been struggling since the Croatia World Cup last year followed by disappointing performances at the Olympics and the 2022 Cairo World Cup. These Trials provided the first opportunity for a reset.

Check out all rifle results below. Pistol results are posted here.

Women’s 10m Air Rifle

Trial 1

Meghana M. Sajjanar (628.8) defeated Mehuli Ghosh (630.9) in the Gold Medal match by a score of 16-10. Mahek Jatana (629.2) upset Olympian Elavenil Valarivan to finish third.

The qualification round was topped by Elavenil (631.1) while 628.5 was the qualification cut-off.

The junior trial was won by Arya Rajesh Borse (630.8), also a finalist in the senior event. Tilottama Sen (627.4) won the youth trial.

Trial 2

Mehuli Ghosh was not to be denied a gold. Mehuli (630.1) beat T1 youth winner Tilottama Sen (630.6) by a score of 17-9 in the T2 gold medal match. Elavenil Valrivan (630.7) finished third ahead of Ramita.

Tilottama overall had a good outing, winning a gold and two silvers. In the T2 junior gold medal match, she beat T1 junior winner Arya Rajesh Borse (628.4) by a score of 17-5. In the youth gold match she was upset 9-17 by fellow Karnataka shooter Yukthi Rajendra (626.4).

The T2 qualification round which saw seven of the top eight scoring 630+ was topped by Ramita with 632.1. The cut-off was 629.2.

Men’s 10m Air Rifle

Trial 1

Delhi’s Paarth Makhija was in pole position throughout T1. He topped qualifications with an impressive 632 and beat young West Bengal shooter Abhinav Shaw (631.2) 16-4 in the senior gold medal match. Army’s Sandeep (628.1) finished third here ahead of Arjun Babuta.

Paarth also won the junior event after beating Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar (627) by 16-10. The youth trial meanwhile was won by UP’s Piyush Sharma (625.6).

Paarth and Abhinav were the only shooters to score 630+ in qualifications while the cut-off was 627.3.

Trial 2

Tokyo Olympians Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (629.9) and Deepak Kumar (631.6) dueled it out in the gold medal match that was won by the former by a score of 17-11. Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil (629.3) of Maharashtra finished third ahead of Avinash Yadav.

AP’s Maddineni Umamahesh, who topped qualifications with an impressive 632.5, won both the junior and youth trials as well.

The qualifications in T2 were higher-scoring than T1 with the cut-off being 629.1.

50m Rifle 3 Positions Men

Trial 1

Navy’s Niraj Kumar upset Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar (580-26x) to win T1 by a score of 16-6. Swapnil Kusale (581-24x) of Railways finished third ahead of Chain Singh (580-22x).

Punjab’s Pankaj Mukheja (576-21x) won the junior event.

Niraj had topped qualifications with 583-24x. The cut-off was 579-27x.

Trial 2

2016 Olympian Chain Singh (586-31x) of Army won T2 after beating Swapnil Kusale (581-22x) 17-13 in the gold medal match. Avinash Yadav (584-30x) of MP was third ahead of Parul Kumar (578-24x).

Tamil Nadu’s Amar Chakravarthy Kishore (570-24x) won the junior event by beating Avinash in the gold medal match.

Chain topped the qualifications while the cut-off was 578-24x.

50m Rifle 3 Positions Women

Trial 1

Gaayathri N (582-30x) of Tamil Nadu beat Punjab’s Sift Kaur Samra (581-33x) 16-10 in the gold match. Ayushi Podder (584-23x) of WB was third ahead of Olympian Anjum Moudgil (584-32x).

Sift Kaur however won the junior event beating MP’s Ashi Chouksey 16-14.

Ashi had topped qualifications with 586-29x. The cut-off was 581-22x.

Trial 2

T2 was almost entirely dominated by Sift Kaur Samra. She defeated Ashi Chouksey (579-21x) again, this time in the senior gold medal match, and also won the junior trial by beating MP’s Mansi Kathait (576-17x) by a score of 16-8.

T1 winner Gaayathri N (577-30x) finished third in T2 while Anjum Moudgil finished fourth again.

Anjum topped qualifications with 585-25x; Sift Kaur was second with 582-29x while the 8th place score was 576-17x.

50m Rifle Prone Men

The top three in this non-Olympic event in T1 were Swapnil Kusale (623.4), Goldi Gurjar (622.7) and Parul Kumar (619.1). Pankaj Mukheja (615.7) won the junior event.

The top three in T2 were Swapnil Kusale (619.8), Indranil Basak (616.7) and Ron George Valiyaveettil (616.5). Avinash Yadav (612.3) won the junior event.

50m Rifle Prone Women

The top three in T1 were Zenab Hussain Bandookwala (621.5), Sift Kaur Samra (621.2) and Sunidhi Chauhan (620.9). Sift Kaur won the junior event.

The top three in T2 were Priyanka Roy (619.6), Saachi Gupta (618.9) and Shreya Saksena (618.6). Mansi Kathait (615.3) won the junior event.