Annu Raj picks up gold in women's air pistol

Annu Raj of Air India pipped Heena Sidhu of Punjab by less than a full point to grab the gold in the women's 10 air pistol event, in which, fancied shooters Anisa Sayed and Rahi Sarnobat failed to advance to the final in the 55th National Shooting Championships.

The bronze went to Chandigarh's Shweta Chaudhary.

Annu Raj fired 388 as compared to Heena's more modest tally of 384 in the preliminaries. But in the ten-shot final, the latter made a brave attempt to catch up only to falter by a whisker.

Annu Raj totalled 485.8 for the title, while Heena, who fired 100.5 in the finals, finished with 484.5 to miss the gold by a narrow margin.

Bronze medalist Shweta finished with 483.1 while Anisa of Haryana and Rahi of Maharashtra made their exit at the preliminaries after tallying 374 each.