Ketan wins women's 10m air pistol gold in nationals

Haryana’s Ketan Malik overcame a strong field comprising Paris Olympic double medallist Manu Bhaker and was crowned the women’s 10m air pistol national champion on Thursday. Ketan struck the gold with 240.0, ahead of Meenu Pathak of Delhi, who took silver with 238.4, and Surbhi Rao, who claimed bronze with 219.5. In the junior women’s category, Vanshika Chaudhary from Uttar Pradesh emerged on top, edging out Anjali Shekhawat by 0.2 for gold, while Asian Games champion Palak Gulia secured bronze, and Army Marksmanship Unit’s Lakshita Bishnoi claimed the youth title after a narrow 0.6 victory over Rashmika Sahgal, with Sanskriti Bana completing the podium.

The final followed an extensive qualification phase that saw over 900 shooters compete across 39 relays. Gulia topped the qualification with 582-24x. She was joined at the top by Bhaker, who also shot 582, finishing second on inner-10 count with 19x. Ketan qualified third with 581-16x, while Mohini Singh (580-19x), Anjali Shekhawat (579-22x), Surbhi Rao (579-22x), Anjali Choudhary (579-19x), and Meenu Pathak (579-14x) completed the list of finalists. In the final, Bhaker finished seventh with 137.2, followed by Anjali Choudhary on 110.1, while Mohini Singh ended fourth with 197.9 and Anjali Shekhawat placed sixth with 157.5.