Tejaswini Sawant beats Anjum Moudgil in 50m Rifle 3 positions trials

Sawant outgunned Moudgil in a close battle between the two Olympic ticket holders...

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Tejaswini Sawant won the gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
(Getty Images)

Tokyo-bound shooter Tejaswini Sawant prevailed over Anjum Moudgil, to clinch the Women's 50m Rifle 3 positions event in the National shooting trials at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range on Monday.

It was an edge of a seat thriller and in the end, Sawant got her nose in front with a score of 458.7 to Moudgil's 457.8.

The former world champion from Maharashtra aced the qualifying round with 1171. While her younger rival finished third with 1167 behind Sunidhi Chauhan, who hit 1168 in qualifying.

Meanwhile, Haryana's Nischal took the third position in the final, ahead of experienced campaigner Lajja Goswami in the finals.

The performance will come as a big boost for Sawant who qualified for Tokyo 2020 after reaching the finals of the women's 50m rifle 3 position event at the 2019 Asian Shooting Championships in Doha.

Moudgil qualified for Tokyo 2020 after winning silver in the 10m air rifle at the 2018 ISSF World Shooting Championships in Changwon.

A few days earlier, World No.1 Elavenil Valarivan and Assam's Hriday Hazarika won the women's and men's 10m Air Rifle T1 national selection trials respectively.

Valarivan shot 628.3 in the qualification round and entered the finals in fourth place. While Nisha Kanwar, topped with a score of 631.8.

But in the finals, Valarivan put her best foot forward and finished with 251.7, two points ahead of second-placed Ayonika Paul. Shriyanka Sadangi of Odisha finished third.