National shooting: Pankaj Mukheja wins second trial on the trot, completes 3P double

Bhopal, April 16 (IANS) Pankaj Mukheja won his second match in two days, topping the men's 50m rifle 3-positions (3P) T4 trials at the M.P. State Shooting Academy Range here on Sunday, after he had won the T3 trials of the same event on Saturday.

In the T4 gold medal match, Mukheja, representing the Railways, overcame local favourite Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar 16-12 to come out on top.

Also winning on the day was Mehuli Ghosh, now representing the ONGC, who won the women's 10m air rifle T4 trials with a 17-9 result over her former state-mate Swarnali Roy of West Bengal and Rajasthan's Bhavesh Shekhawat, who won the men's 25m rapid fire pistol (sRFP) T4 trials.

The day however belonged to Mukheja, who completed the men's 3P double on his current trip to Bhopal. He had gotten the better of Railway's colleague Swapnil Kusale in the T3 trials. Kusale was pushed to third on Sunday by India's number one Tomar as he finished second in the ranking round ahead to claim the right to challenge Mukheja for gold.

The winner for the second consecutive day finished way clear on top of the eight-man ranking round field shooting 413.2 as Tomar finished with 409.7. This after finishing only sixth in the qualifiers with a score of 580 even as Swapnil shot 590 to top the field and Aishwary qualified second with a 585.

In the women's 10m air rifle, Mehuli also shot an impressive 632.2 in qualification, which was a second high-score in two trials running. She however finished second as Maharashtra's Himani Chondhe upstaged her with a 634.5.

In the ranking round, West Bengal's Swarnali Roy, who had finished third in the qualification with a 631.1, upstaged all to finish on top with a score of 263.2. Mehuli followed her to the gold medal match with a 262.6 while Shriyanka Sadangi was third with 262.2. Mehuli's experience however was too good for Swarnali in the final as the former won comfortably in the end.

Bhavesh Shekhawat of Rajasthan meanwhile, emerged triumphant in the men's 25m rfp. He shot 577 to qualify in the third position and then topped the first semifinal with 15. The medal match saw him line up against the likes of Vijay Kumar, Olympic silver medallist, and regular India international Neeraj Kumar of the Army besides CISF's Udit Joshi. Bhavesh pipped Neeraj 30-29 to win as Vijay finished third with hits20 hits.

Among the juniors, rising local star Gautami Bhanot also did the double in the women's 10m air rifle, winning the junior T4 trials to go with her earlier T3 win. Vedant Waghmare of Maharashtra also won the junior men's 3P while Mahesh Anandkumar of Tamil Nadu won the junior men's 25m rfp T4 title.

There are two more days of the national selection rifle/pistol trials for Group A shooters yet to be conducted.