New Delhi, Feb 12 Olympians Rhythm Sangwan and Swapnil Kusale did the star turn on Wednesday, Day Five of the Rifle/Pistol National Selection Trials (Group A) at Delhi’s Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) here. Rhythm Sangwan (women’s 25m pistol T2), Swapnil Kusale (men’s 50m rifle 3 positions - T1) and Arya Rajesh Borse (women’s 10m air rifle T2) took home the winner’s bragging rights at the end of it.
Haryana’s Rhythm was the day’s first winner, emerging best after a couple of shoot-offs, from a finals group that had four other Olympians in the fray, among them Paris Olympics double bronze winner Manu Bhaker, who finished second.
Swapnil was next and was a class apart in the men’s 3P T1 final, while Arya Rajesh Borse registered a memorable triumph in a high-quality scoring women’s air rifle T2 final, falling just one short of the world record score, achieved at the same venue.
Rhythm wins via shoot-off
Manu Bhaker has been relentless upon her return to competitive shooting, topping the women’s 25m pistol trials for a second straight time, her 294 in the second rapid-fire qualifying round in the morning giving her a total of 591. Punjab’s Simranpreet Kaur Brar, among the most consistent in recent times in the event, was second with 588.
Also making the final-eight cut were four other Olympians - Rahi Sarnobat (588, 3rd), Esha Singh (586, 4th), Heena Sidhu (580, 5th), and Rhythm (578, 7th), setting up a champagne decider.
In the end, both Rhythm and Manu tied with 37 hits after the 10-series of five shots each, and both Haryanvis then needed two shoot-offs to be separated, the former prevailing 4-3 in the second after both had tied 4-4 in the first. Simranpreet bagged another podium with a third-place finish.
Swapnil, a class apart
Paris bronze medallist Swapnil Kusale qualified for the men’s 3P T1 final with a smooth 592 out of 600, which gave him a third spot on the leaderboard. The Navy’s Kiran Ankush Jadhav topped with a sublime 596, while another top 3P shooter Akhil Sheoran was second with 593.
In the final, however, Swapnil led after the first five shots of the first Kneeling position right till the end, pulling away expertly after every stage of the gruelling event. He ended with a 465.1, 2.6 ahead of Akhil who was second. Veteran Chain Singh finished third.
Arya wins in women’s air rifle
Arya Rajesh Borse of Maharashtra, another shooter in rousing form, won the women’s 10m air rifle T2 trial after an intense final that saw India’s best go hell for leather with one high-scoring shot after another.
The newly-crowned national champion Ananya Naidu set the marker with a scorching 53.1 after the first five shots stage and continued to lead the field till the 20th shot of the 24-shot final. Two-time Olympian Elavenil Valarivan kept her company for most parts with Arya at sixth after 10-shots.
Then from the 11th to the 21st shot, Arya shot nothing below 10.4, ending the string with a perfect 10.9 to shoot into the lead, as Mehuli Ghosh crept up to beat Elavenil to the podium.
As both Arya and Ananya went into the final two shots on the same score (231.9), Arya nailed a couple of 10.8s to finish with 253.5. Ananya also finished with two high 10s to her credit but fell 0.5 short in the end calculations.
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