Shahu Tushar Mane clinched the gold medal in the men’s 10m Air Rifle event, while Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil set a new world record en route to winning the junior title at the National Shooting Championship for Rifle events here on Monday. Mane of Railways clinched his first senior national title, winning the 24-shot final by the thinnest of margins. Also hogging the limelight was former world champion Rudrankksh of Maharashtra, who shot a sizzling 254.9 to win the junior final, surpassing the existing senior finals world record held by Olympic Champion Sheng Lihao of China, by a margin of 0.4.
It was Shahu, who set the ball rolling at the MP State Academy Shooting range, shooting nothing below 10.1 in the final.
The 22-year-old from Kolhapur, who began shooting in 2015 and has won an ISSF World Cup gold in the air rifle mixed team as well as an individual silver in the Youth Olympics, managed to hold off a late surge by Dhanush Srikanth.
The Telangana shooter was left to rue the 9.8 he logged for his fifth shot, as he finished with 252.2, just 0.1 behind the winner.
Both the gold and silver medallists shot identical 10.6 and 10.5 for their final two shots as excitement reached fever pitch in the stands.
Rajasthan’s Yash Vardhan won bronze, finishing ahead of Rudrankksh.
Rudrankksh sizzles in junior men’s final
Former world champion Rudrankksh Patil managed to ward off the disappointment of the senior final as he landed the junior men’s title with a virtuoso performance.
His second shot was a 10.0, but besides that there was nothing under 10.3 as he left silver winner Abishek Sekhar of Karnataka a big 3.5 points behind.
Haryana’s Himanshu won bronze.
Himanshu wins gold in youth category
Haryana’s Himanshu featured in all three men’s individual finals on the day, finally winning gold in the men’s 10m Air Rifle Youth competition with a score of 253.0 for his second medal of the day.
Madhya Pradesh’s Yash Pandey was 2.2 shots behind in second while West Bengal’s Abhiav Shaw won bronze.
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