Shooting Nationals: Rajshree Sancheti gets 2nd title; Shreyasi, Swapnil also win


Shooting Nationals: Rajshree Sancheti gets 2nd title; Shreyasi, Swapnil also win

Rajshree Sancheti/ PC: The Hindu

Rajshree Sancheti’s dream run at the 2021 Shooting Nationals continued as she won the 10m Air Rifle Mixed gold alongside Paarth Makhija. Delhi’s Rajshree had been crowned the new National Champion in Women’s 10m Air Rifle just days ago.

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The 64th National Shooting Championships organised by the NRAI are being simultaneously held at New Delhi (Pistol), Bhopal (Rifle) and Patiala (Shotgun).

10m Air Rifle Mixed

The Delhi team comprised of Rajshree Sancheti and Paarth Makhija defeated Gujarat’s Elavenil Valarivan and Keval Prajapati by a scoreline of 17-11 in the gold medal match.

In the bronze match, Madhya Pradesh’s team of Shreya Agrawal (the bronze winner in Women’s 10 AR individual) and Harshit Binjwa prevailed by a narrow scoreline of 16-14 over West Bengal’s Srinjoy Datta and Suhani Rane.

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The Gujarat team topped both qualification rounds on the back of consistent shooting by Elavenil and Keval. The duo scored 628.7 (Elavenil 315.4, Keval 313.4) in Qualification 1 and 420.8 (Elavenil 210.9, Keval 209.9) in Qualification 2.

WB (626.7) and MP (626) were 2nd and 3rd respectively in Q1 while eventual winners Delhi were 6th with 624.5 (Paarth 312.9, Rajshree 311.6). 8th place went to Rajasthan’s 623.8. The Tokyo 2020 cut-off was 627.9.

Delhi had a strong comeback in Q2 with a score of 418.8 (Rajshree 210.1, Paarth 208.7) that got them to 2nd place and into the finals. WB were 4th with 417.3. The Tokyo 2020 cut-off was 417.1.

Strong individual performers in the qualification rounds included Shreya and Srinjoy.

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Junior and Youth

In the junior event, the Rajasthan team of Divyansh Singh Panwar and Atmika Gupta clinched the title by beating WB’s Srinjoy Datta and Arnisha Chowdhury by a score of 16-12.

In the bronze medal match, MP’s Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Anshika Gupta defeated Himachal’s Zeena Khitta and Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu by a narrow margin of 16-14. This was another medal for Aishwary after his podium finishes in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3P competition. Anshika had won the Youth title in Women’s 10m AR.

Maharashtra’s team of Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil and Nupur Rakesh Hagawane Patil topped Q1 with 628.1 but finished 5th in Q2. Rajasthan and WB were 2nd and 3rd in Q1 with 625.8 and 625.1 respectively while MP scored 621.9 for 7th place.

Rajasthan topped Q2 with 417.5; MP were 4th with 416.1.

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In he Youth competition’s gold medal match, Punjab’s Jagteshwarjot Singh and Palak (622.4 and 617.1) won 16-4 against the Karnataka team of Tilottama Sen and Srikrishna N (622.7 and 417) while WB’s Abhinav Shaw and Suhani Rane (628.7 and 416.4) defeated UP’s Khyati Chaudhary and Abhaydev Chaudhary (619.4 and 415.1) by a scoreline of 16-9 in the bronze match.

Women’s Trap

Shreyasi Singh
Shreyasi Singh

Experienced shotgun shooter Shreyasi Singh of Bihar won the Senior National title in Women’s trap. She posted a score of 34 in the finals, 3 ahead of MP shooter Pragati Dubey’s 31. London 2012 Olympian Shagun Chaudhary representing ONGC was 3rd.

Shreyasi also topped qualifications with a score of 112; Pragati was 3rd with 107 while Shagun qualified 6th with 104 after winning a shoot-off. Shreyasi is best known for winning the Women’s Double Trap gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games and is an MLA in the Bihar Assembly.

MP (Pragati, Manisha Keer, Neeru) won the Team title with a combined score of 305. Punjab (Rajeshwari Kumari, Prabhsukhman Brar and Inaya Vijay Singh) were 2nd with 293 and Delhi (Aadya Tripathi, Kirti Gupta, Aashima Khanna) were 3rd with 290.

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Delhi enjoyed a podium sweep in the Junior event; in fact 5 of the 6 finalists belonged to the state. Aadya Tripathi won gold with a final score of 38. Divya Singh was 2nd with 36 while Bhavya Tripathi was 3rd.

Vidhi Singh of Haryana scored 103 in qualifications and was the only shooter in the junior field to cross the 100 mark. She however finished 4th in the finals. Aadya scored 97 in the qualification while Divya and Bhavya both scored 99. Delhi unsurprisingly took the junior team title with a total score of 293. Haryana were 2nd with 260 and Tamil Nadu were 3rd with 257.

Men’s 50m Rifle Prone

Swapnil Suresh Kusale representing Railways took home the non-Olympic Men’s 50m Rifle Prone title with a score of 625.4 He defeated 2nd-placed Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar who scored 623.8. Goldi Gurjar of MP was 3rd with 623.4. No finals were held.

Team MP (Aishwary, Goldi, Harshit Binjwa) won the Team title with a combined score of 1853.2. Railways (Swapnil, Akhil Sheoran, Subhankar Pramanick) were 2nd with 1850 while the BSF team (Anil Kumar, Shamsher Singh Bhandari, Vimlesh Kumar Rathour) was 3rd with 1849.2.

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Aishwary did win the Junior title with the same score which was a junior National Record. Deependra Singh Shekhawat (617.9)of Rajasthan was 2nd while Pankaj Mukheja (615.8) of Punjab was 3rd in the junior competition. Rajasthan (1842.8) won the Junior Team title ahead of MP (1838.2) and UP (1823.4).

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