National Championship: Ananya Naidu trumps 760 other shooters in 10m air rifle to claim gold

National Championship: Ananya Naidu trumps 760 other shooters in 10m air rifle to claim gold

Ananya Naidu of Maharashtra pipped Meghana Sajjanar of Railways by 0.2 point to clinch the women’s air rifle gold in the 67th National Shooting Championship at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy on Tuesday.

It was a commendable fare from the 26-year-old Ananya after she had qualified in the eighth spot with a relatively modest score of 630.9 in an intimidating field of 761 shooters.

The experienced Meghana led for the most part in the final till she marginally slipped on the 22nd shot, with a 10.0. Ananya took a 0.2 point lead at this stage, and held on to the advantage, as both the shooters tallied an identical 20.6 on the last two shots.

Gautami Bhanot, the rifle 3-position champion Ashi Chouksey, Arya Borse, Aayushi Gupta and Disha Dhankhar were the others to make the final.

World Championship silver medallists Mehuli Ghosh (630.0) and Anjum Moudgil (628.6) were placed 16th and 29th respectively. Of course, Olympian Anjum had earlier won the rifle 3-position silver earlier.

Olympic quota winner Tilottama Sen, who had missed the Paris Games by a whisker, shot 628.1 for the 33rd spot.

Gautami Bhanot won the junior gold beating Mayuri Pawar, who reversed the result in the youth final. Disha Dhankhar won a bronze in both.