Ameerah wins women’s 10m air rifle title, Zuhair ‘traps’ gold

Haryana’s Ameerah Arshad delivered a composed performance under pressure to clinch the 10m Air Rifle women’s title at the 68th National Shooting Championship (Rifle) here on Friday. She edged past Railways’ Rajshree Anilkumar Sancheti by a razor-thin margin of 0.1 point.

In other events, Zuhair Khan of Uttar Pradesh won the men’s trap gold with 43 hits. Ameerah finished the women’s final with a score of 251.9, narrowly ahead of Sancheti, who settled for silver on 251.8, while Chhattisgarh’s Pranju Shree Somani secured the bronze medal with 230.5.

At the shotgun range in New Delhi, junior men’s trap bronze-medallist, Zuhair finished on top in the senior men’s trap final with 43 hits, adding a first senior national title to his tally. Uttarakhand’s Shapath Bhardwaj secured the silver medal with 40 hits, while Olympian Kynan Chenai claimed the bronze with 33 hits. Vivaan Kapoor had earlier topped the qualification with 121, while Zuhair finished second on 120 (+3), ahead of Ahvar Rizvi, who also shot 120 but finished behind on shoot-off (+2).

In the men’s trap team event, Uttar Pradesh clinched the gold medal with an aggregate of 345 through the combined efforts of Ahvar Rizvi, Mohd Asad Sultan (118), and Rayyan Rizvi (107). Punjab secured silver, while Uttarakhand took the bronze medal. In the 10m air rifle junior women final, Karnataka’s Tilottama Sen carried her strong qualification form into the final to claim gold with an impressive 253.1.

Maharashtra’s Samiksha Subhash Patil finished second to take silver with 250.0, while Haryana’s Ramita added a bronze medal to her tally with a score of 230.0. Tilottama completed a memorable day by clinching her second gold in the youth women’s 10m air rifle final, finishing on 251.6. Ameerah Arshad once again impressed to secure silver with 251.4, while Maharashtra’s Avantika Rajendra Shelke claimed the bronze medal with 229.4.

In the team events of 10m air rifle, Haryana dominated the women’s competition, winning gold with an aggregate score of 1892.7, ahead of Railways (1886.0) and Madhya Pradesh (1884.3). Haryana also topped the junior women’s team standings with the same aggregate, followed by Karnataka (1887.1) and Gujarat (1876.9). Karnataka claimed the youth women’s team gold with 1887.1, while Haryana (1885.9) and Madhya Pradesh (1881.7) completed the podium.