Shooting sport

Narwal and Francis, who aggregated a World Record qualifying score of 565 to qualify in the top place, defeated the Chinese pair of Yang Chao and Min Li 17-11 in the final. Led by the Paralympic gold medallist Narwal, the Indian pair totalled 274.3 with Narwal getting 138.7 in the final six shots. If Narwal had consistent scores of 10s and 9s, Francis matched Narwal with 9s, a few 8s and 10.

It was also Swapnil Kusale's first gold and third medal overall in the Baku World Cup, after he won silver in men's 3P individual and men's team competitions. It was a hard-fought win for the pair of Swapnil and Ashi. In the first qualification stage, they finished fourth with a combined score of 881/900 to qualify for stage two. The Ukranian pair finished second to also march into the top-eight stage.

The 26-year-old Swapnil thus won his first individual ISSF World Cup stage medal. He went down 10-16 to Rio Olympics silver medallist and Tokyo Olympic finalist Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine in the gold medal match. India now has one gold and one silver medal from their 12-member rifle squad taking part in the competition, moving them up to fifth on the medal table from overnight ninth.

Reigning Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat won the Women's 25M Pistol T1 trials even as young Parth Makhija registered a unique double winning both the Men's and Junior Men's 10M Air Rifle competitions at Bhopal's MP State Shooting Academy range, as the National Shooting trials one and two completed the first week of competitions. Among the other winners was Olympian Manu Bhaker who triumphed in the Junior Women's 25M Pistol.

Railways' Meghana Sajjanar won the T1 Women's 10M Air Rifle trials, defeating West Bengals Mehuli Ghosh 16-10 in the gold medal match on Friday. Meghana, a former India international, finished sixth in the first qualification round with a score of 628.8 after 60-shots, as the top eight moved to the final stages. Olympian and former world No. 1 Elavenil Valarivan had topped qualifications with 631.1, while Mehuli finished second with 630.9.

In a thrilling gold medal match-up in the Women's 25M Pistol team competition on the penultimate day of the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol in Cairo, India registered a 17-13 victory over Singapore to claim their third gold of the tournament. Rahi Sarnobat, Esha Singh and Rhythm Sangwan made it to the title round on Saturday after topping the second qualification stage along with the Singaporean trio of Xiu Hong, Shun Xie and Ling Chiao Nicole Tan.

Such has been the magnitude of their downfall at the Games that one shudders to think about the sports' future in the new season and, more importantly, in Paris 2024 when expectations will again soar and the shooters will be expected to bring home a bagful of medals.

Maharashtra's Rahi shot a solid 37 in a top draw final to see off young and in-form challengers to her crown. 14-year old Namyaa Kapoor of Delhi, recently crowned Junior World Champion in the event, won silver with 31 and reigning Youth Olympic Games and 10M Air Pistol National Champion Manu Bhaker of Haryana, claimed bronze with 27-hits.

This was Shreyasi's fifth individual career National title and her second in Women's Trap. The reigning Commonwealth Games Champion won with a finals score of 34, ahead of Madhya Pradesh's Pragati Dubey and ONGC's Shagun Chowdhary, who ended with scores of 31 and 27 respectively. In the Junior Women's Trap, Aadya Tripathi from Delhi bagged the gold with a final score of 38 ahead of Delhi's Divya Singh and Bhavya Tripathi with scores of 36 and 28 respectively.

Whereas, in Bhopal, where the Rifle Nationals are taking place, Indian Navy's Kiran Ankush Jadhav upstaged Indian No. 1 Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar among others to claim gold in the men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) competition. Aishwary did make up for the disappointment, however, by claiming the junior men's 3P title later in the day.