Shreya Gawande clinches 25m Pistol gold, Muskan Bhanwala bags 3 medals at KSS shooting championships

Maharashtra’s Shreya Gawande clinched gold in the 25m pistol event while talented teenager Muskan Bhanwala finished with silver in the seniors and two gold medals in the Junior Women (Individual) and Senior Team category in the 18th KSS Memorial Shooting Championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range on Friday.

Gawande, a medallist in the 2015 Asian Air Gun Championship, was dominant in the final with 35 hits. There was very little to challenge her as she built up a big lead. The only spot of bother was when she managed just one hit in the ninth series. But she held her nerve to make sure she took home the gold.

With national junior pistol coach Jaspal Rana watching, Haryana’s Bhanwala maintained a good score as well. She was close on Gawande’s heels but not enough to contest for the top spot and got the silver with a score of 30. Her state mate Anisa Sayyed, scored bronze with 23 points.

In the team competition, Bhanwala partnered World University Shooting Championship gold medalist Gauri Sheoran and Sayyed to shoot a gold medal for Haryana while ISSF Junior World Cup gold medalist Devanshi Rana, Asian Games medalist Shweta Singh and Shilpi Bisht led ONGC to bag the silver. CRPF’s Pushpanjali Rana, Rachna Devi and Sarvesh Tomar finished third.

A confident Bhanwala looked in superb touch as she went on to claim gold in the junior women category with a score of 27. She had to fight off the stiff competition from another Junior World Cup medalist and teammate Tanu Rawal, who fell short by one point. Rawal’s teammate at the Junior World Cup, Arunima Gaur, scored 21 points to get bronze.

In the 10m Air Rifle men’s Selection Trials 5, Vishwajeet Jhala, representing the Army, won a gritty gold with a score if 249.0, ahead of Madhya Pradesh’s upcoming shooter Aishwarya Tomar (248.5) and Manjeet Singh (227.6).

Jhala had led the field at the end of the first series but Tomar put in a strong display to edge ahead. However the Army man wrested the momentum back when after the 18th shot when a 9.7 from Tomar gave him the lead. Then on he maintained his position with Tomar falling to third before recovering to finish with silver.

Tomar also bagged gold in the 10m air rifle junior category at the KSS Memorial shooting Championship with a score of 252.3.

Veteran shooter Gagan Narang, once again topped the qualification, but had a slow start and was the second competitor to be eliminated, after Deepak Kumar. On Thursday, he had similarly started slow in the final of the KSS shooting championship after finishing on top in the qualifications.

In the 25m pistol (IPC) Mixed Senior category, Anurod Panwar dominated the proceedings from the beginning and scored 534 to finish first. Nikunjbh Prajapati scored 525 to bag the silver while Rajendra Singh got the bronze at 499.

RESULTS

25M Pistol Women Sr.

Gold - Shreya Gawande, Maharastra - Final Score - 35

Silver – Muskan Bhanwala, Haryana - Final Score - 30

Bronze - Anisa Sayyed, Haryana - Final Score - 23

25M Pistol Women Team Sr.

Gold - Haryana

Anisa Sayyed

Muskan Bhanwala

Gauri Sheoran

Silver – ONGC

Devanshi Rana