Rahi Sarnobat back to her best in sports pistol

Asian Games gold medallist and three-time World Cup champion Rahi Sarnobat was back to her best as she beat a strong field and topped the sports pistol event with a six-point margin over Abhidnya Patil in the National shooting selection trials at the Trishul Academy in Maharana Pratap Sports College, on Saturday.

After having top scored with 582, on par with world record holder Rhythm Sangwan who slipped to the seventh spot, the 34-year-old Rahi shot with her usual consistent accuracy in the final.

Vibhuti Bhatia took the third place ahead of World Cup gold medallist Chinki Yadav. Anjali Choudhary, Ishneet Aulakh and Heena Sidhu were the others to make the final.

World championship silver medallist Mehuli Ghosh was in equally robust form as she topped the air rifle event, beating Meghana Sajjanar by a half point. More importantly, Mehuli had shot 633.3 in qualification, the second best behind Asian Games medalist Ramita Jindal (633.5), who eventually placed fourth behind Sonam Maskar.

Rajshreeri Sancheti, Narmada NIthin, Kashika Pradhan and Tilottama Sen were the others to make the final.

In 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Niraj Kumar prevailed over qualification topper Babu Singh Panwar (591) with a 6.6 point margin. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar beat Olympic medalist Swapnil Kusale to the third place, while Rudrankksh Patil placed fifth.

Nikhil Tanwar, Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu and Prathan Bhadana were the others to make the final.

The results: Women: 10m air rifle: 1. Mehuli Ghosh 253.6 (633.3); 2. Meghana Sajjanar 253.1 (631.9); 3. Sonam Maskar 231.4 (631.6).

25m sports pistol: 1. Rahi Sarnobat 40 (582); 2. Abhidnya Patil 34 (576); 3. Vibhuti Bhatia 27 (579).

Men: 50m rifle 3-position: 1. Niraj Kumar 463.9 (590); 2. Babu Singh Panwar 457.3 (591); 3. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar 447.0 (588).