Suruchi Phogat, Meenu Pathak, Esha Singh in women’s air pistol in the National shooting trials in Delhi on Friday. | Photo: Special Arrangement
Meenu Pahtak accomplished the unimaginable task of beating Suruchi Phogat in women’s air pistol in the National shooting trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Friday.
After qualifying with a modest score of 576, Meenu came up with a strong performance in the final, scoring 243.1, and beating Suruchi by 1.7 point.
It was a rare defeat for Suruchi, who had qualified with a good score of 582, after her triple gold medals in women’s, junior and youth in the national championships, followed by the triumph in the National Games and in the first trial.
Esha Singh who had won four medals in the last Asian Games placed third ahead of Sainyam, qualification topper Surbhi Rao (585), double Olympic medallist Manu Bhaker, Rhythm Sangwan and Sakshi Suryavanshi.
Asian Games gold medallist Palak Gulia shot 574 and missed the last berth in the final, owing to lesser number of inner-10s, to Esha.
It was equally dramatic in the men’s section, even though Varun Tomar continued to assert his efficiency in the final, as he beat Olympic medallist Sarabjot Singh by 1.9 point.
Varun shot 580 in qualification and beat three others on the same score for the last berth in the final, with a better score of 26x inner-10s.
Olympic finalist and World junior champion Saurabh Chaudhary rose to the third place after shooting 583 in qualification. Anmol Jain, Karan Sehrawat, Deepak Nagal, qualification topper Aditya Malra (585) and Subhash Sihag were the others to make the final.
The results:
10m air pistol: Men: 1. Varun Tomar 239.8 (580); 2. Sarabjot Singh 237.9 (582); 3. Saurabh Chaudhary 217.2 (583).
Women: 1. Meenu Pathak 243.1 (576); 2. Suruchi Phogat 241.4 (582); 3. Esha Singh 220.7 (574).
Published – February 14, 2025 06:58 pm IST
