Haryana dominate National Pistol trials as Naveen wins Men’s 10M Air Pistol T2 competition on final day  

Bhopal: Haryana stamped their dominance over the Pistol shooting discipline as Naveen piped Punjab’s Arjun Singh Cheema 16-12, to win gold in the Men’s 10M Air Pistol T2 competition, on the concluding day of the National Shooting Trials I&2 at the M.P. Shooting Academy range in Bhopal.

The youngster just about made it to the final stages of the competition, finishing seventh in qualifying with a score of 581. He was tied with three others including Olympian and world number one Saurabh Chaudhary on the same score, but made it through on account for higher inner 10s as Saurabh crashed out in ninth.

Naveen made it to the medal round finishing behind the Army’s Dharmendra Singh Gaharwar in the first semi-final and then topped the medal round with a score of 44 to setup the gold match-up with Arjun, who was second in the medal round with 41.5.

Among the eight Olympic pistol disciplines, Haryana shooters picked up half or four of the golds on offer besides winning several minor medals in the events. Their Pistol shooters led by Rhythm Sangwan, who had a very good trials, and others like Naveen, Sameer and Suruchi, really came to the fore in these trials.

Also, many regular names in the Indian teams of recent years were upstaged by new talent coming through.

Over 3300 Shooters, including all top Shooters of the country, participated in the year’s first National trials in Bhopal, after they had to be postponed from January this year, because of the raging pandemic. 

Indian teams for the upcoming World Cup in Baku and Junior World Cup in Suhl are to be selected on the basis of these trials.