Tokyo Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar, who recently lost his place in the Indian team for the upcoming Baku World Cup, found a semblance of his form back while Sift Kaur Samra and Vijayveer Sidhu continued with their momentum, on Day 2 of the National Rifle and Pistol Selection Trials at the MP State Shooting Academy Range in Bhopal. Meanwhile in New Delhi’s Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Ganemat Sekhon won the men’s and women’s skeet trials respectively.

Panwar’s solid performance

Panwar, a former world No 1, was in sensational shooting form in Bhopal, logging a score of 636.3 in the men’s 10m air rifle T4 qualification round. In the Bhopal ISSF World Cup last month, China’s Sheng Lihao had shot 635.4 in qualification enroute to gold which currently stands as the world record. The fact that the Jaipur lad beat it by almost a point, speaks volumes. Besides qualification, he also topped the 25-shot ranking round and then went on to defeat Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu 16-12 in the gold medal match to snatch the winner’s bonus as well.

Punjab’s Samra, who won her first ever ISSF medal, a bronze, at the Bhopal World Cup, won the women’s T4 50m rifle 3 positions, putting it across state-mate and Olympian Anjum Moudgil, 16-4 in the gold medal clash. Tejaswini Sawant, yet another seasoned Olympian in the fray, was third.

In the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol, India international Vijayveer Sidhu won 30 points to outgun Adarsh Singh 30-24 in the medal match to give Punjab yet another win. Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar was third with 17.

Among the junior winners were West Bengal’s Abhinav Shaw in the men’s 10m air rifle, Haryana’s Nikita Kundu who won the women’s 3P junior and Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu, who won the junior men’s 25m rapid fire.

Anant Jeet, Ganemat win in shotgun

Seasoned Skeet shooter, Rajasthan’s Anant Jeet Singh Naruka won the men’s skeet trials with 39-hits in the final. Overnight leader Gurjoat Singh Khangura of Punjab was second with 37 while Olympian Angad Bajwa was third with 17 hits.

The trio had also qualified for the semis in the same order with Anant Jeet and Gurjota logging 123 hits out of 125 to finish 1-2 after the former got the better off the latter in a shoot-off (2-1) to determine rankings. Angad shot 119 in qualification.

In women’s skeet, Ganemat stamped her authority as India’s No 1 women’s skeet shooter with a facile win. She shot 118 in qualification to finish second to Parinaaz Dhaliwal who topped with 119, then went on to win the semi-final with 29-hits and the final with 37-hits. Rajasthan’s Darshna Rathore who came second was a full five hits behind her with 32.