Shooter Arjun wins back-to-back trials, Ashi beats world record score

Bhopal: India’s top rifle shooters continued their impressive showing at the ongoing national rifle/pistol selection trials for Group A after Paris quota holder Arjun Babuta won back-to-back trials and triple Asian Games medallist Ashi Chouksey beat the world record score enroute to the victory, here.

Arjun shot 252.5 in the men’s 10m air rifle T4 finals, just 1.2 short of Divyansh’s world record (253.7), which he had equalled on Tuesday before winning the T3 trials as well. Tamil Nadu’s Sri Karthik Sabari Raj (252.2) improved upon his third place in the T3 match to finish second while Rajasthan’s Yash Vardhan came in third with a score of 230.8.

In the women’s 25m air pistol T4, former Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat ranked first with a score of 33 in the finals, having scored 583 in the qualifications. Punjab’s Jaspreet Kaur was second place with 30-hits while Air India’s Annu Raj Singh (27) was third.

Local star Ashi Chouksey then set the ranges on fire with a sizzling qualification round in the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) T4 competition. She dropped just one point in the second prone position and just two in the final standing position to post a jaw-dropping 597. A point clear of the current world record held jointly by Norway’s Jenny Stene and USA’s Sagen Maddalena.

She took that confidence to the final posting a facile win, her 461.8 comfortably ahead of Kerala’s Vidarsa Vinod’s 457.5. Haryana’s Himani Poonia was further back in third. It was Vidarsa’s second second-place finish in two days.