Manini, Aishwary top 50m rifle prone on first day of National Selection Trials

New Delhi, Jan 19 (PTI) World Championship silver medallist Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar and Manini Kaushik finished on top of the men's and women's 50m rifle 3P fields respectively on the first day of the Rifle/Pistol National Selection Trials 1&2 (Group A) here on Monday.

Manini topped the women's 50m rifle prone T1 with a total of 625.0, built on a composed and balanced series-by-series performance of 104.7, 104.2, 102.3, 104.6, 104.2, and 105.

Karnataka's Tilottama Sen finished second with 622.6, while Kerala's Vidarsa K Vinod was third on 622.0.

The depth of competition was evident with just 0.4 separating the athletes placed fifth to eighth.

Jharkhand's Supriya Kumari (621.7) finished fourth, ahead of the current national champion Priya of the Army Marksmanship Unit (620.7). Haryana's Nischal (620.6), Madhya Pradesh’s Ashi Chouksey (620.5) and Punjab's Sift Kaur Samra (620.4) rounded off the top eight.

In the men's 50m rifle prone Trials 1, Aishwary stamped his authority early, finishing at the top with an impressive 629.6. The 50m 3P national champion combined a high opening series with a controlled finish to create a clear buffer of 3.2 at the top with 105.3, 105.4, 105.7, 104.9, 103.7, and 104.6.

Former world champion Akhil Sheoran claimed second place with 626.4, while current national champion Swapnil Kusale finished third with 625.3. Army shooters Nishan Budha (623.8) and Chain Singh (622.9) followed behind on fourth and fifth positions respectively.

Navy’s Nikhil Tanwar (621.9), Army's Babu Singh Panwar (621.6) and Navy shooter Niraj Kumar (620.6) completed the top eight.

In T1 of 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event, Omkar Singh of Navy leads the lineup after Stage 1 of qualification with a score of 295-14x while Bhavesh Shekhawat of Rajasthan and Ankur Goel of Uttar Pradesh are in second and third places respectively with scores of 292-9x and 291-10x.

World Championship silver medallist Anish Bhanwala shot 286-12x and is currently in seventh place.

The finals of 50m Rifle 3 Positions (T1) for both men and women will also be held on Tuesday along with the T2 finals of 50m rifle prone events. PTI SSC SSC PDS PDS