National shooting championships: Manu Bhaker defends 10m air pistol title
Manu Bhaker has won three of the last four national titles in her event.
Tokyo Olympian Manu Bhaker successfully defended the women’s 10m air pistol title at the national shooting championships 2021 on Saturday at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi.
Manu Bhaker, who recently became the junior world champion in the 10m air pistol, has now won three of the last four national titles in her event.
The 19-year-old Haryana shooter shot a 241.6 in the final, trumping Tamil Nadu’s Shri Nivetha (239.9). Esha Singh, who beat Manu Bhaker to the national title two editions back, came in third with 215.4 to claim bronze.
In the qualifying stage, Esha Singh topped the field with 582 points while Manu Bhaker (576) was the fifth-best shooter. The top eight from the qualifiers made it to the finals.
On Thursday, Bihar’s Shreyashi Singh won the women’s trap event held at the New Moti Bagh Gun Club Ranges in Patiala, Punjab.
Shreyashi Singh, the reigning Commonwealth Games double trap champion, scored 34 in the finals, beating Madhya Pradesh’s Pragati Dubey (31) and ONGC’s Shagun Chowdhary (27). This was Shreyashi’s fifth national title overall and second in women’s trap.
In Bhopal, Rajshree Anilkumar Sancheti and Paarth Makhija beat Gujarat’s Elavenil Valarivan and Keval 17-11 in the finals to clinch gold in the 10m air rifle mixed team event. Sancheti had won the individual women’s 10m air rifle title earlier.
In men’s 50m rifle prone, Swapnil Suresh Kusale finished ahead of Tokyo Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Madhya Pradesh shooter Goldi Gurjar to win gold.
The 64th edition of the shooting nationals, which concludes on December 6, is being held concurrently at Patiala, Delhi and Bhopal.