Haryana’s Sarabjot Singh was crowned the National Champion for the first time in his short career after winning the men’s 10m air pistol event while young sensation Saurabh Chaudhary finished fourth, on Saturday. Going into the final two aims of the 24-shot final, Sarabjot trailed his state-mate Shiva Narwal by 0.5 points. The youngster then hit 10 and 10.5 to Shiva’s 10.1 and 9.3 to emerge victorious with 242.3 points at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range. Shiva settled for silver with 241.7, 0.6 points behind Sarabjot. Delhi’s Harsh Gupta was third with 221.2, while top-ranked Indian and Asian Games champion Saurabh Chaudhary ended fourth with 200.9.
Shiva, however, picked up the junior men’s title piping Saurabh Chaudhary by a wafer thin margin of 0.2 points in the final.
His score of 246.7 was also a national finals record, ironically previously held by Uttar Pradesh’s Saurabh at 245.30.
Saurabh too went past his record, winning silver with 246.5. Sarabjot settled for bronze in this one with 225.4.
Shiva then also went on to win the Youth Men’s title in the discipline, prevailing over Haryana’s Sagar Bhargava 243.1 to 239.4. Arif Malik of U.P won bronze with 216.2.
Over 4500 athletes are participating in the 64th National Shooting Championship in Pistol events scheduled to run till December 6.
[“source=ndtv”]
