New Delhi: Teenaged shooters continued to rule the roost at the ongoing 23rd Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial (KSSM) Shooting Championship, a premiere domestic rifle and pistol tournament. After the heroics of Rashmika Sahgal and Shambhavi Kshirsagar over the past couple of days, it was the seasoned Abhinav Shaw, who did the star turn on 10m air rifle mixed team Sunday at the Dr. Karni Singh ranges here, winning all three golds on offer, in the Olympic event.
Incidentally, the West Bengal rifle shooter, the youngest ever medallist at the Nationals, is also the reigning junior world champion in the mixed team event.
In the senior final, Abhinav partnered world championship bronze medallist Mehuli Ghosh and the two overwhelmed the Railways’ pairing of Meghana Sajjanar and Shahu Tushar Mane, 16-4, in the title decider.
Elavenil Valarivan and Smit Rameshbhai Moradiya won bronze for Gujarat in the event that saw the highest 20-teams compete.
Then in the junior gold match, he partnered Swati Chowdhury to give West Bengal a second gold on the day as they took out Shambhavi and Parth Rakesh Mane of Maharashtra 16-12, in a much more tightly contested final. Abhinav Agrawal and Gautami Bhanot picked up bronze for Madhya Pradesh (M.P), giving Gautami her first medal of the day.
Abhinav completed the golden hat-trick with his third partner of the day Sandrata Roy, in the youth category. This was also a final where Abhinav and Sandrata dominated their opponents, the MP pairing of Nikhil Pundir and Gautami Bhanot, inflicting a 17-5 defeat. Haryana won bronze through Ameerah Arshad and Puru Raj Birthal.
That concluded the mixed team competitions for the championship with Rhythm Sangwan and Aditya Malra winning the senior pistol mixed team event in Bhopal’s MP State Academy range on Saturday. The Haryana pair defeated Rahi Sarnobat and Pranav of Maharashtra 16-14 in the gold medal match.
Shiva Narwal, the reigning world champion in the senior mixed team pistol and Kanak, then gave Haryana a second gold by winning the junior event 16-8 over Rajasthan while Delhi’s Rashmika Sahgal won a fourth gold in the championship, partnering Hardik for a 16-6 verdict over Karnataka in the gold medal match of the youth category.
(IANS)
