Ravi Kumar sets national record in 10m air rifle

Ravi Kumar (Indian Air Force) gave a good account of his form as he collared the men’s 10m air rifle gold medal with a national record to boot in the 61st National shooting championships at the National Games shooting range here on Wednesday.

The Air Force shooter, who was second to Sanjeev Rajput (627.8) in the preliminary phase with a score of 627.0 shot brilliantly right through the final to accumulate a tally of 251.2 to eclipse his own previous record of 225.7, set earlier this year. Arjun Babuta finished second with 248.9 while Rajput took the bronze with 228.0.

Ravi Kumar was also part of the IAF side which won the team gold with a total of 1868 points pushing Haryana (1866) and Punjab (1644) to the
minor placings.

In the junior men’s event, Divyansh Singh Panwar (Rajasthan) took the title with a tally of 247.6 points scoring a narrow win over Tejas Krishna Prasad (Karnataka) by 0.4 points. Sunmoon Singh Brar (Punjab) was third with 225.7 points.

In the youth section too it was Divyansh who took the top spot with a total 247.7 points ahead of Shahu Tushar Mane (Maharashtra, 246.3) and his team-mate Sachet Santosh (224.9).

In the 25m standard pistol, a non-Olympic event, Deepak Sharma (Air India) struck the gold medal with a score of 571, a point ahead of second-placed Arpit Goel (Delhi). Neeraj Kumar (Army) won the bronze medal with a tally of 569. Deepak returned identical scores of 192 (in the first series of 150 seconds and in second, 20 seconds) before confirming the top spot with a round of 187 in the third (10 seconds).

Haryana, served well by Anish Bhanwala, Harpreet Singh and Vijay Kumar, took the team gold with a total of 1696, pushing Army Marksmanship Unit (1686) and Border Security Force (1676) to the second and third places.

In the junior men’s category, Adarsh Singh (Haryana) emerged the winner with a score of 568 ahead of his team-mate Anish Bhanwala (567) and Shivam Shukla (Indian Air Force, 564) before rounding off his campaign in the discipline with a golden double, helping his State to the gold medal in the team event. Haryana took the top spot with a tally of 1657 points, forcing Punjab (1644) and Madhya Pradesh (1583) to be satisfied with the second and third places.