Services marksmen bag top-three spots in 25m rapid fire pistol shooting trials
Gurpreet Singh won the round with a score of 21
Armyman Gurpreet Singh came out on top in the 25m rapid fire pistol T1 national shooting trial at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range on Sunday.
In fact, Services bagged all the top three spots as fellow army man Neeraj Kumar and Air Force's Shivam Shukla stood second and third respectively.
After scoring 580 in the qualifiers, Gurpreet accumulated a score of 21 to finish first. Whereas, Kumar and Shukla finished on 20 and 17 respectively.
The 73rd-ranked shooter in the world participated in the Rio Olympics in 2016.
In 2018, he finished with 579 in Changwon to bag the silver medal in World Championship whereas he won bronze in Asian Championship in 2013 in Tehran.
He has also won another silver in 25m Centre Fire Pistol segment in Doha, 2019 in the Asian Championship.
Moreover, the 33-year-old Gurpreet has won won laurels for India in major meets in the past. He won the gold medal in 25m rapid fire pistol (pairs) and 10m air pistol events (pairs) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games. He paired up with Vijay Kumar to bag the top spot on 7 October 2010.
On the same day, he and Omkar Singh won another gold medal in the Men's 10m Air Pistol (Pairs). He also won an individual bronze in Men's 25m rapid fire pistol at the event.
In fact, Gurpreet was the final Indian shooter to qualify for the Rio Olympics after finishing fourth in the 10m Air Pistol category, with a score of 154.8 points at the ISSF World Cup rifle/pistol event in Munich.
In the women's category, Niveditha Nair topped the qualification round with a score of 540. Abhidnya Patil came a close second with 539. Whereas, Annu Raj Singh finished third with a score of 533.