Young Haryana shooter Suruchi bags three air pistol gold medals at Nationals

New Delhi, Dec 20 (PTI) Young Haryana shooter Suruchi covered herself with glory, bagging a hat-trick of gold medals in women's 10m air pistol in the ongoing 67th National Shooting Championship here on Friday.

The daughter of an Army veteran from Jhajjar, Suruchi won her maiden senior national title with a score of 243.1 before adding the junior and youth titles as well at the Karni Singh range.

Suruchi, who began shooting five years ago at the same range in Jhajjar as double Olympic bronze medallist Manu Bhaker, thus bettered the silver-medal effort she achieved in the previous Nationals.

The teenager went into the eight-shooter final after topping the qualifications with a solid 585. In a field of seasoned pros, including Olympian Rhythm Sangwan, reigning Asian Games champion Palak, India international Divya T.S. and junior world champion Sainyam, Suruchi stamped her authority in the 24-shot final by staying in contention from the opening shot.

She grew stronger as the eliminations began after the 12th shot, firing just three 9s in the last 12 to leave state-mate Rhythm 5.7 points behind in second place. Krushnali Rajput of Maharashtra was third.

In the junior final, Chandigarh's Sainyam gave Suruchi a tough fight but the Haryana shooter shot 245.1 to win gold by a 3.4 point margin.

In the Youth final, Suruchi scored 245.5 to finish 6.3 points ahead of Uttar Pradesh's Sanskriti Bana, who bagged silver. Palak took the bronze.

"It is certainly the most memorable day. It was my first senior national title and to win three gold medals in a day is really special. Shooting, shooting and only shooting is what is in my minds in the days to come," said Suruchi. PTI AM AM AH AH