 | « Back to article | Print this article |
Asian Games and Youth Olympics gold medallist Saurabh Chaudhary inched closer to a long-awaited Indian team comeback with a third-place finish in the men's 10m air pistol competition at the national selection trials in New Delhi on Friday.
On the concluding day of the trials, the 22-year-old Chaudhary finished third on the podium behind Army man Varun Tomar, who won the T2 (trial 2) by shooting 239.8, a comfortable 1.9 points ahead of Paris Olympics bronze medallist Sarabjot Singh, who finished second.
Delhi's Meenu Pathak delivered the biggest surprise of the day as she upstaged fancied names to clinch the women's 10m air pistol T2 match with an effort of 243.1 in the final.
Besides Chaudhary, another notable event of the day saw Haryana's latest star Suruchi Phogat taste defeat for the first time since December. Their efforts over the last three months have taken the former to number two in the Indian rankings, while Chaudhary has zoomed to the very top of his event.
The women went first as Surbhi Rao topped the qualification round in the morning with a solid 585. In signs of what was to come, Suruchi qualified second with a 582, while double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker was third with 580.
Also making the finals cut were Olympians Rhythm Sangwan and Esha Singh with Meenu taking the seventh spot with a none-too-impressive impressive 576.
The winner did not begin well and was lying fifth after the first series of five single shots. After 10 shots, Manu took the lead with Meenu coming in at third. Suruchi, Sainyam and Esha were also shooting well and remained in contention throughout.
Meenu took the lead for the first time after the 16th shot of the 24-shot final as Suruchi and Esha chased her.
Esha wilted with an 8.5 in her 21st as she ended third and going into the final couple of shots, Meenu was 0.3 ahead of Suruchi who had staged a great comeback after losing steam in the middle. A 9.2 in her 23rd shot, however, was enough for Meenu who closed with 10.2 and 10.7 to seal the issue in her favour.
The men's qualification also had a top score of 585, by another Haryanvi Aditya Malra. Chaudhary shot 583 to qualify second, Sarabjot managed 582 for fourth, while Varun snatched the eighth and final qualifying spot on more inner 10s with a 580.
Chaudhary was fastest off the blocks in the final and shot to the lead after the first five with Varun in third. As shooters began to bow out one by one after the 12th single shot, it was left to the three best air pistol shooters of the country to fight it out at the business end.
Varun had pulled away from the pack during the mid-stages of the final and Sarabjot rallied late to fend off Chaudhary for the second position.