Karan, Divya take T2 air pistol trials

New Delhi, Dec 24 (IANS) Karan Sehrawat of Haryana and Divya TS of Karnataka, emerged victorious at the men’s and women’s 10m air pistol T2 trials, as the new season’s first two national selection trials for rifle and pistol concluded here at the Karni Singh Shooting range.

The international season begins early in 2024, when the Indian rifle and pistol squad heads to Jakarta, Indonesia, to take part in the Asian Olympic qualifying event. Teams for that event have been already announced.

Olympian Saurabh Chaudhary extended his good run of form to a second day, topping the men’s 10m air pistol T2 qualifications with a world-class score of 586. He was followed by his senior Olympian Gurpreet Singh who shot the same score but had seven lesser inner 10s than Saurabh. Three Haryana shooters took the final three qualifying spots, with Aditya Marla and Karan Sehrawat claiming sixth and seventh, just four inner 10s between them in a tally of 584 each, while eventual runner-up Shiva Narwal claimed the eighth and final spot with a 583.

They turned the tables in the final however denying Saurabh a repeat of his T1 win on Saturday. Karan played the perfect final as he led throughout the 24-shot decider with Shiva giving a scare only after the 20th shot getting within just 0.1. That was the closest he would get, as Karan finished the better, to take the title with a final score of 243.0 to Shiva’s 242.6. Kedarling Uchaganve of the Army, piped Saurabh to third, finishing with 222.4.

In the women’s 10m air pistol T2 final, India international Divya TS denied runner-up Manu Bhaker and third-placed Anuradha Devi yet another Haryana 1-2 with a virtuoso performance in a quality finals field. Her 243.8, was in the end, well ahead of Manu’s 242.4.

Rhythm Sangwan topped with 578 in the 60-shot qualification round which did not reach searing scoring heights. Anuradha was second with 577 while the seasoned Annu Raj Singh was third with 576. Manu took fifth on the same score as Anuradha, while Divya just sneaked in on countback in eighth after being tied with two others on 574.

She was then joint fifth after the first five singles shots series and only moved up to third after the second set of fives with Anuradha and Manu on track for a Haryana 1-2.

After the 14th single shot, she was ahead of Anuradha and was just 0.3 behind Manu, who was now in the lead. A couple of solid 10s more and she was in the lead for the first time in the final after the 16th. Manu then faltered with an 8.8 enabling Divya to go ahead by two after the 18th. She would not look back after that and closed out confidently. To be fair to Manu, it was a great week or so of Shooting for her as she registered four podium finishes out of four.

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