Shooting nationals: Manu Bhaker, Simranpreet win 25m pistol gold

Double Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker and World Cup Final gold medallist Simranpreet Kaur Brar dished out commanding performances to clinch the senior and junior women’s 25m pistol titles respectively at the National Shooting Championship Competitions on Monday. Manu shot 36 in the final to secure the gold medal, finishing four points clear of Divya TS Of Karnataka, who took the silver with a score of 32.

Anjali Choudhary bagged the bronze with a score of 28, while Olympian Rhythm Sangwan finished fourth. In a tough qualification round, Manu finished fourth with 581, while Divya topped with a score of 587. Anjali shot 582, while Sangwan scored 579.

Fresh from her gold-winning achievement at the elite season-ending World Cup Final in Doha, 21-year-old Simranpreet continued her impressive run shooting 39 to claim the gold in the junior women’s 25m pistol event. Dwaram Pranavi won silver, while Palak of Haryana took the bronze.

The junior qualification round was topped by Parisha Gupta, with Simranpreet coming in second with 578. Palak (575) finished third, while Dwaram Pranavi shot 572. The 25m pistol team gold was clinched by Maharashtra with a combined score of 1726 (Shital Preetam Desai 577, Abhidnya Ashok Patil 575 and Rahi Sarnobat 574).

Army Marksmanship Unit (Anuja Verma, Sejal Raju Kamble, and Anjali Bhagwat) finished second with 1722, while Haryana (Rhythm Sangwan, Vibhuti Bhatia, and Tejaswani) secured the bronze medal with 1718. The junior women’s team gold in the event was won by Army Marksmanship Unit, while Delhi secured silver and Punjab took the bronze.