Olympic Selection Trials: Sift Kaur races ahead on road to Paris

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New Delhi, April 26 (IANS) Sift Kaur Samra stole a march over her four rivals in the Olympic Selection Trial (OST) in the women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions (3P), winning back-to-back trials here at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range in the national capital. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, also entered the OST winners' circle, winning the men’s 3P T2 final in a classic 0.22 scrap to the finish line.

Sift, the reigning Asian Games champion, world record holder and the undisputed India number one in women’s 3P for some time now, shot 465.1 in the OST T2 final, to leave Ashi Choksey 2.4 behind in second. Anjum Moudgil was third, after coming second-best in a shoot-off with Ashi. Shriyanka Sadangi and Nishchal came in fourth and fifth.

On Wednesday, Sift Kaur also won the women’s 3P OST T1 at the same venue. As things stand, one more good performance in Bhopal, where the OSTs 3&4 are scheduled next month, should see Sift through to Paris.

The men’s 3P OST T2 final saw yet another India number one and deemed Paris quota holder Aishwary Tomar emerge victorious in a nail-biting climax. Heading into the final shot, Aishwary was 0.1 behind Akhil Sheoran. He fired a 10.6 to Akhil’s 9.9 to seize the win with a final score of 463.6.

Air Rifle, Air Pistol T2

Day 8 of the ongoing OSTs also saw the qualification round of the men’s and women’s 10M Air Rifle and Air Pistol T2 qualification.

Nancy continued her excellent current form to top the Women’s Air Rifle with a score of 633.1. Sandeep Singh was best in the men’s event with an equally solid 632.6.

In the Women’s Air Pistol, Rhythm Sangwan was on top of the leaderboard with a score of 584 while Sarabjot Singh topped the men’s air pistol qualification with 581. All the four finals are slated for the concluding day on Saturday.

--IANS

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