Dehradun (Uttarakhand): Former world champion and Olympian Anish Bhanwala won back-to-back trials in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Men) event, while Tamil Nadu’s Narmada Nithin clinched the top spot in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle on Day Four of the National Selection Trials 3&4 for Group ‘A’ Rifle and Pistol shooters, currently underway at the Trishul Shooting Range, Maharana Pratap Sports College, here in Raipur.
Narmada shot a composed 253.7 in the 24-shot final to edge out ISSF World Cup Final silver medalist Sonam Uttam Maskar by 1.7 points. Delhi’s Rajshree Anilkumar secured third place with a score of 230 after 22 shots.
Earlier in a star-studded women’s air rifle field, Narmada finished sixth with a score of 629.5 in qualification. World Championship medalist Mehuli Ghosh topped the qualification round with 632.2, just 0.1 ahead of Sonam, while Rajshree was a close third at 631.9 after six series of 10 shots each.
Shreya Agrawal (630.5), 50m 3P T4 winner Vidarsha K Vinod (630.3), Ayonika Paul (629.4), and Dnyaneshwari Jayveer Patil (629.3) completed the T3 final line-up.
In the men’s 25m RFP T4 final, Anish maintained his top form to register a score of 30 and claim his second consecutive final win of the trials. Navy’s Pradeep Singh Shekhawat pushed him all the way but had to settle for silver with 29, while Anish’s teammate from Haryana, Adarsh Singh, took third place with 23 shots.
Anish had also topped the T4 qualification round with 584-20x, again bagging a double in the qualifications. Adarsh followed with 581-14x, finishing ahead of fellow Haryanvi shooter Mandeep Singh (579-16x).
Bhavesh Shekhawat (577-10x), Udhayveer Sidhu (576-15x), and Pradeep Singh Shekhawat (574-22x), all contributing to a tightly contested field.
The trials continue on Day Five (Saturday, June 28, 2025) with three finals on the schedule: 10m Air Rifle Women T4, 25m Pistol Women T4, and 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men T3.
Anish is coming into the third and fourth rounds of the trials after the Munich World Cup. Anish, as has been for a while now, was a facile winner in the men’s Rapid Fire Pistol. He qualified third for the six-man final with a score of 581 and then shot two perfect series of 5-hits in the eight 5-shot series decider, to ensure all others were always playing catch-up. Rajasthan’s Bhavesh Shekhawat came in second with 34 hits, while Punjab’s Vijayveer Sidhu won bronze.
(IANS)
