NRAI Trials: Rahi wins again in Women’s 25m Pistol, Manu finishes 4th despite high qualifying score

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Rahi Sarnobat made it 2-in-a-row after winning Trial 2 in the Women’s 25m Pistol event, part of the ongoing NRAI trials. In a high scoring match, Rahi finished with a score of 38, just a point ahead of Chinki Yadav with 37.

Rahi and Chiki were neck-and-neck going into the final series, but the more experienced Rahi sneaked ahead by shooting 4 points compared to Chinki’s 3 in the end. Veteran Annu Raj Singh was 3rd.

Manu Bhaker had qualified in 1st place with an outstanding score of 590. But as has often happened in her short 25m Pistol career so far, she failed to make it count in the finals. She could not recover after scoring just 1 point in the 3rd series and eventually finished 4th.

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In fact this match was a replay of the 2018 Asian Games final of the Women’s 25m Pistol event. There too Manu had scored a Games Record of 593 only to be eliminated in 6th place in the final round. Rahi was the winner then as well. Despite being the best shooter in the country in qualifications for this event, Manu is yet to win an international medal in it. This is something for her, her coaches and the selectors to ponder over.

Chinki qualified 3rd with a solid 584 while Rahi finished 4th with 582. Neeraj Kaur was 2nd with 585. The cut off was 574.

After these 2 trials, it seems Rahi is all set to compete in her 2nd Olympics after London 2012. Trials 3 and 4 to be held in February should decide the winner of the Manu vs Chinki contest.

Manu meanwhile is all set to compete in her favourite 10m Air Pistol event which starts tomorrow.