65th National Shooting Championship: Railways' Akhil Sheoran beats Paris quota winner Swapnil Kusale to claim gold

Railways’ Akhil Sheoran clinched the gold medal in 50m rifle 3 positions at the ongoing 65th National Rifle Shooting Championships at the Vattiyoorkavu Shooting Range in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. The World Cup 2018 champion Akhil got past Swapnil Suresh Kusale in the final by 16-6, who secured a Paris Olympics 2024 quota place for India last month. Swapnil topped the qualification round with a total of 590 before Akhil overtook him in the ranking round by scoring 412.6. Swapnil made it to the gold medal match with a score of 406.7. Former junior world champion and Tokyo Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar shot 406.2 points to settle for the bronze medal.

Aishwary, however, won gold as Madhya Pradesh won both the men’s and junior men’s team events in the discipline. In the junior men’s three positions final, Ramanya Tomer of the Army defeated Sartaj Tiwana of Punjab 16-4. Yukthi Rajendra of Karnataka surprised everyone by winning the women’s 10m air rifle despite placing eighth in the qualification round. She placed second in the ranking round with a score of 261.7. Gautami Bhanot, who had dominated the qualifications, kept her lead with a total of 262.6. Tokyo Olympian and National Games 2022 winner Elavenil Valarivan secured the bronze medal. But Yukthi ultimately claimed victory, defeating Gautami 17-11 in the match.

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Commonwealth Games 2018 champion Haryana’s Anish Bhanwala smashed his own national record in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol qualification round and clinched four gold medals at the 65th National Shooting Championship. Anish had a terrific outing at the Madhya Pradesh Shooting Academy Range in Bhopal as he claimed the senior and junior gold medals in men’s 25m rapid fire pistol and also won the team competitions in both th events. In the process, he outperformed his own national record qualification score of 588 to win the field consisting of 112 shooters with a score of 590. He had previously set the record in the ISSF World Cup 2019. Anish finished second behind Vijayveer Sidhu of Punjab in the four-man semi-final with a score of 14, compared to the latter’s 15 hits, but went on to win the gold medal match.

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