Olympian Manu Bhaker and current India number one in the event Rhythm Sangwan, teamed up to win double gold medals for Haryana in the Women’s and Junior Women’s 25m Pistol Team competition at the 65th National Shooting Championship Competitions (65th NSCC) in Pistol events, being currently held in Bhopal’s MP Shooting Academy range.
The duo partnered Anita Devi in the Women’s event and Tejaswini in the Juniors and claimed gold in both events.
Haryana beat Telangana to claim gold in the women’s 25m pistol team, logging a score of 1726 to the latter’s cumulative score of 1696. Esha Singh, Megana Sadula and Malabika Baruah represented Telangana.
Maharashtra won bronze on the same score but with lesser inner 10s than Telangana. In the Juniors, Haryana’s tally of 1728 was better than silver winning Punjab’s total of 1703 logged by Arshdeep Kaur, Navroop Kaur Gill and Simranpreet Kaur Brar. Delhi won bronze in the category.
In the process Rhythm and Manu also qualified for the top eight ranking round in the individual competitions of both the events. Rhythm shot 588 to top both the qualifications while Manu qualified seventh in the women’s individual and fourth in the juniors with a score of 577.
Earlier on Tuesday at the 65th Shotgun Nationals in Delhi’s Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range, another Haryana woman, Kiran, was crowned national champion in Women’s Trap, when she beat Madhya Pradesh’s Manisha Keer in a shoot-off. Both were tied at 30-hits after the 40-shot medal match, after which Manisha missed her third shoot-off target to hand the crown to Kiran. Bihar’s Shreyasi Singh won bronze.
Tamil Nadu’s Nilaa Rajaa Baalu was the Junior Women’s Trap champion while Delhi and Haryana won the respective women’s and junior women’s team Trap competitions respectively.
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