New Delhi: Punjab lad Vijayveer Sidhu won what turned out to be a battle of Olympians in the end, to clinch a first national title in the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP) Olympic event. Aiming the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR) Finals Hall, the Paris Olympian Vijayveer got the better of Rio Olympian Gurpreet Singh (Army Marksmanship Unit) 28-25 in the title round of the men's RFP at the ongoing 67th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) for Pistol events. The Air Force's Shivam Shukla was third with a score of 23.
Vijayveer shot 581 in the qualifications to make it to the six-man eight series of five rapid-fire shots final round in second position, behind Uttar Pradesh's Ankur Goel, who shot 585. Gurpreet, who announced after the finals that this would be his last nationals as he was turning to coaching, only managed to clinch the last sixth spot with a score of 575.
In the final however, while Vijayveer was looking comfortably a cut above the rest from the second series onwards, Gurpreet rolled back the years to overcome two shoot-offs, one to secure a medal and after fourth finishing Ankur had shot four out of five, to land a splendid silver.
In the junior men's RFP, 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 the 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. (ANI)