Punjab’s Vijayveer Sidhu won the battle of Olympians against Gurpreet Singh to clinch a first national title in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol at the 67th National Shooting Championships on Thursday.
Earlier, Sidhu had finished second in the qualification round with a score of 581 behind Uttar Pradesh’s Ankur Goel, who shot 585.
Singh, meanwhile, had taken the sixth and final spot with a score of 575.
However in the final, Sidhu looked comfortably a cut above the rest from the second series onwards even as Singh rolled back the years to overcome two shoot-offs, one to secure a medal and the second after fourth-finishing Goel had shot four out of five, to land a splendid silver.
Shivam Shukla of the Air Force won the bronze with a score of 23.
In the junior men’s 25 rapid fire pistol, Maharashtra’s Raajwardan Ashutosh Paatil delivered a virtuoso performance to strike gold with 31 hits to his name.
He sealed the deal with three consecutive perfect 5s for fifth, sixth and seventh series respectively, giving the rest of the field no chance.
Suraj Sharma of Madhya Pradesh was second with 23 hits, while Abhinav Choudhary of Rajasthan won bronze with 21 against his name.
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