It was an emotional win for Navy’s Harpreet Singh who grabbed the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol gold in the 55th National Shooting Championship at the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Balewadi on Thursday.
Harpreet, who won his maiden national individual title, couldn’t control tears when he shot the final round to total 28 points in the eighth series of the final match. The silver went to armyman Vijay Kumar who was just one point behind Harpreet.
The gold medallist scored 580 to qualify for the final and later shot 4, 5, 2, 4, 3, 3, 3, 4 to take his score in the final to 28. Vijay was equally good in the eight series, but a mess-up in the fifth series cost him the yellow metal. He shot 2, 5, 3, 5, 1, 3, 5, 3 in the final. He had scored 577 in the qualification round. The bronze medal went to army’s Gurpreet Singh as he scored 23 in the final.
“I had prepared myself for this championship. I had worked on my mental and physical fitness and I am glad it paid off,” Harpreet said after the final.
In the women’s 50m prone category, Lajja Goswami won gold with a score of 590, while Ruby Garg finished second with 588. Elizabeth Susan Koshy won bronze with 587 points.
Friday will see top shooters Abhinav Bindra, Gagan Narang and Sanjeev Rajput in action when they participate in the men’s 10m air rifle event. These three shooters have bagged Olympic quotas and it will be interesting to see them fighting for top honours in the last national championship before the Olympic Games in London next year.
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