Reigning Asian champion Varun Tomar grabbed the spotlight by clinching both the senior and the junior men’s 10m air pistol titles at the 67th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) here on Sunday.
The 21-year-old Army marksman, who narrowly missed out on last year’s Paris Olympics, overcame a sluggish start in the senior final to snatch his maiden national crown at the expense of teammate Pradhyumn Singh, who fell short by 0.8 points.
Rajasthan’s Aakash Bhardwaj won the bronze.
Tomar then had a similar slow start in the junior final, but quickly made up ground, staying in touch with eventual silver winner Nikhil Saroha of Uttar Pradesh who was on a start-to-finish mission.
Tomar’s patience finally paid off after the 21st shot as Nikhil blinked with an 8.5, handing the senior pro an easy double gold in the end at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range.
Tomar’s score in the senior final was 238, while he was clearly more confident in the junior final, resulting in greater accuracy with a tally of 246.2.
Pradhyumn also rounded off a fruitful day with a second medal, a bronze in the junior men’s air pistol.
The youth final saw a UP 1-2 when Chirag Sharma overcame the 14-year-old Dev Pratap by margin of 1.3 after 24 shots.
Chirag finished with 241.8. Rajasthan’s Mayank Choudhary won bronze.
Haryana, Rajasthan and Maharashtra stood 1-2-3 on the medal tally at the Pistol Nationals with 23, 22 and 13 gold medals respectively.
