New Delhi: Haryana’s Anuradha Devi and the Navy’s Kunal Rana won the Women’s and Men’s 10m Air Pistol T6 trials, as the National Selection Trials 5 & 6 for Group A Rifle and Pistol shooters, concluded here at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range. Anuradha led a Haryana sweep in the women’s event while Kunal after a seesaw battle with Uttar Pradesh’s Varun Tomar, clinched it in the final 24th shot to emerge triumphant.
Kunal shot 586 in qualification to top the field, even as another Haryana shooter Sumit, also finished on the same score, but took second position on lesser inner 10s. Then from the 17th to the 21st shot of the final, the lead kept swinging between Kunal and Varun, but a perfect 10.9 for his 22nd shot meant that he went into the final two shots with a lead of 1.1 over Varun. That came down to 0.8 with the final shot remaining, but an 8.6 from Varun handed the title to Kunal.
In the Women’s Air Pistol T6, Anuradha did an encore by topping the qualification with a score of 582. Indian international Rhythm Sangwan it was however, who made the play in the final, leading initially while Anuradha was at fifth after the first series of five shots. She stayed in touch throughout and slowly crept up on the field to take the lead after the 16th shot. However, Rhythm came back well to go ahead yet again, but Anuradha finished strongest with her final three shots reading 10.7, 10.9 and 10.2. In the end she won with a comfortable 1.8 to spare.
Haryana also swept the two junior finals of the same event as Parmod shot 241.8 to win the junior men’s T6 trials which was yet another Haryana 1-2-3. The junior women’s crown was won by Lakshita who shot 242.9 to thwart Chandigarh’s Sainyam.
