Rudrankksh, Sift, win back-to-back trials

(L-R)- Esha Singh, Simranpreet Kaur Brar, Manu Bhaker, at the Dr. Karni Singh range on Monday. 

Khel Today Bureau

New Delhi: Maharashtra’s Rudrankksh Patil and Punjab’s Sift Kaur Samra won back-to-back national selection trials for Group A shooters, emerging winners of the men’s 10m air rifle and women’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) T2 matches respectively. Both the top international shooters had won the T1 trials at the same Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range (DKSSR) in Delhi on Sunday. Rudrankksh, the 2022 men’s air rifle world champion, shot 253.3 in the final to win comfortably, while Sift was even more dominant, eventually ending with a tremendous score of 469.8, 0.2 over her own existing world record in the event. Punjab earned a second title on the day when Simranpreet Kaur Brar won the day’s third final, the women’s 25m pistol T1 with a score of 36, leaving Olympian Esha Singh and double Olympic medalist Manu Bhaker behind in silver and bronze positions.

Sift wins third title in a week

The day’s first decider saw the world class Sift Kaur Samra deliver a virtuoso finals performance which gave her a third title in a week-a national games gold and two trial wins.

She topped the qualifications with a brilliant 595 and then led from shot one of the 45-shot final and after every position, to leave fellow Olympian Shriyanka Sadangi of Odisha a huge 4.6 points behind. She surpassed her world record score despite a final shot return of 9.9, such was her accuracy in the final. Telangana’s Surabhi Rapole won bronze.

Rudrankksh’s double

Former world champion Rudrankksh Patil has also been in rousing form in the new season after missing out on the Paris Olympics narrowly, and registered his second trials victory in two days with a mature showing in the men’s 10m air rifle. He was second in qualification with 633.0 to eventual silver medalist Hriday Hazarika of Assam, though only on countback.

In the final he was on the money from shot one, a 10.4, and then led through all the pit-stops to leave Hriday 1.9 short after the regulation 24-shots. Gujarat’s Smit Moradiya won bronze.

Simranpreet trumps Esha and Manu

After losing out to them in the Olympic trials last year, Punjab’s Simranpreet Kaur Brar managed to pull one over the top pistol duo of Manu Bhaker, who won a double bronze at the Paris Olympics and Esha Singh, a reigning world air pistol mixed team champion, in the women’s 25m pistol T1 selection trial.

The Punjab shooter, who won silver at the 38^th National Games last week, began well (with a perfect 5) and ended strong (4,4,4) in the 10-series of 5-shots final. Another perfect 5 came at the right time in the fifth series but a couple of 2s meant both Esha and she went into the final series tied at 32-hits.

Manu, who had earlier topped qualification with a quality 587, meanwhile had managed to overcome a sluggish start to come right back into contention at the back end, but despite a perfect 5 for the ninth series, she fell short of the leaders by one. The 10^th and final series saw Simranpreet close with 4-hits to Esha’s 3, thereby eking out a well-deserved one-point victory.