Mehuli, Anish, Ganga win in national selection trials

Bhopal, Feb 25 (PTI) India's Paris Olympic quota holders enjoyed a favourable outing in the first finals of the national rifle-pistol selection trials 3 and 4, with West Bengal's Mehuli Ghosh and Haryana's Anish Bhanwala ending up winners here on Sunday.

Army marksman Ganga Singh bucked the trend in the day's final competition, winning the men's 50m rifle 3 positions event with plenty to spare.

Mehuli qualified for the top eights with a characteristically solid 631.5 in the first 60-shot round. Tamil Nadu's R. Narmada Nithin topped with 632.5.

In the final, Mehuli was joint third behind Punjab's Jasmeen Kaur and local favourite Ashi Chouksey after the first five-shot series, and slipped to fourth in the middle before getting back to that position after the 16th single shot with Jasmeen and Ashi still 1-2.

Thereafter she shot 10.7 or above in five of her last eight shots, the 17th being a perfect 10.9, to pip Ashi by 0.1 and finish with 251.6. Jasmeen settled for third position with 229.9.

The men's 25m rapid fire pistol event reinforced Bhanwala's stature as India's number one RFP shooter as he cantered home with a 32-hits in the six-man 40-shot final. Army marksman Gurmeet was some distance behind with 29-hits while Rajasthan's Bhavesh Shekhwat was third with 22.

Anish had earlier topped the qualification over two days with a total of 589 with Gurmeet again way behind on second with 583. Ankur Goel who was the final qualifier was a dozen points behind Anish.

No stopping Ganga Singh ================ In the final event of the day, the men's 50m rifle 3 positions, Ganga Singh of the Army Marksmanship Unit stunned the field with a sumptuous display. His final score of 458.5 was a huge 4.1 ahead of Goldie Gurjar, another local hope who came second best.

The Navy's Lagad Saurav Gorakh was third in a final that had all shooters from the Services besides Goldie.

Ganga had earlier qualified third with a score of 581. PTI AH AH UNG