68th National Shooting C'ship: Haryana's Ameerah Arshad secures 10m air rifle gold

New Delhi [India], January 2 (ANI): Haryana's Ameerah Arshad delivered a composed performance under pressure to clinch the gold medal in a dramatic 10m Air Rifle Women final at the 68th National Shooting Championship Competitions (Rifle), held at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy in Bhopal on Friday.
She edged past Railways' Rajshree Anilkumar Sancheti by a razor-thin margin of 0.1 point. Later in the day, at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi, Zuhair Khan of Uttar Pradesh rose to the occasion to win the men's trap gold at the 68th NSCC (Shotgun) with 43 hits, as per a press release from the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI).
Ameerah finished the women's final with a score of 251.9, narrowly ahead of Sancheti, who settled for silver on 251.8, while Chhattisgarh's Pranju Shree Somani secured the bronze medal with 230.5. Tilottama Sen finished fourth with 208.9, followed by Kajal Kumari (187.9) and Sakshi Sunil Padekar (166.2). Haryana's Ramita finished seventh with 145.1, while qualification topper Prerana Padmakar Morey, who had earlier led the field with 632.5, finished eighth with 122.7.
Prerana Padmakar Morey and Pranju Shree Somani jointly topped the standings in the qualification with identical scores of 632.5, followed closely by Sakshi Sunil Padekar (632.1). Ameerah qualified fourth with 631.5, ahead of Kajal Kumari (631.0), Tilottama Sen (630.8), Ramita (630.8), and Sancheti (630.7).
At the shotgun range in New Delhi, the junior men's trap bronze medallist, Zuhair finished on top in the men's trap final with 43 hits, adding a first senior national title to his tally. Uttarakhand's Shapath Bhardwaj secured the silver medal with 40 hits, while Olympian Kynan Chenai claimed the bronze with 33 hits. Ahvar Rizvi finished fourth with 26 hits, followed by Vivaan Kapoor (22) and Udayvir Singh Jajee (19).
Vivaan Kapoor had earlier topped the qualification with 121, while Zuhair finished second on 120 +3, ahead of Ahvar Rizvi, who also shot 120 but finished behind on shoot-off (+2). Shapath Bhardwaj qualified fourth with 119 +3, ahead of Kynan Chenai on 119 +2, while Udayvir Singh Jajee completed the finalists with 118 +6. Mohd Asad Sultan narrowly missed the cut after a shoot-off despite scoring 118 +3.
In the men's trap team event, Uttar Pradesh clinched the gold medal with an aggregate of 345 through the combined efforts of Ahvar Rizvi, Mohd Asad Sultan (118), and Rayyan Rizvi (107). Punjab secured silver with 342, while Uttarakhand also finished on 342 to take the bronze medal.
In the 10m Air Rifle Junior Women final, Karnataka's Tilottama Sen carried her strong qualification form into the final to claim gold with an impressive 253.1. Maharashtra's Samiksha Subhash Patil finished second to take silver with 250.0, while Haryana's Ramita added a bronze medal to her tally with a score of 230.0. Ameerah Arshad finished fourth with 208.2, followed by Pranju Shree Somani (187.7), Tanishkaa Kumari Pillai (164.3), Kajal Kumari (144.8), and Kopal Dubey (123.1).
Tilottama completed a memorable day by clinching her second gold in the Youth Women's 10m Air Rifle final, finishing on 251.6. Ameerah Arshad once again impressed to secure silver with 251.4, while Maharashtra's Avantika Rajendra Shelke claimed the bronze medal with 229.4. Pranju Shree Somani finished fourth with 207.5.
In the team events of 10m Air Rifle, Haryana dominated the Women's Team competition, winning gold with an aggregate score of 1892.7, ahead of Railways (1886.0) and Madhya Pradesh (1884.3). Haryana also topped the Junior Women's Team standings with the same aggregate, followed by Karnataka (1887.1) and Gujarat (1876.9). Karnataka claimed the Youth Women's Team gold with 1887.1, while Haryana (1885.9) and Madhya Pradesh (1881.7) completed the podium.
*Other Results
-10m Air Rifle Women
Senior Team
Haryana (Ameerah Arshad, Ramita, Shruti) - Gold (1892.7)
Railways (Mehuli Ghosh, Sonam Uttam Maskar, Meghana M. Sajjanar) - Silver (1886.0)
Madhya Pradesh (Mahima Sisodiya, Shreya Agrawal, Shrivalli Shrivastava) - Bronze (1884.3)
Junior Team
Haryana (Ameerah Arshad, Ramita, Shruti) - Gold (1892.7)
Karnataka (Tilottama Sen, Anushka H Thokur, Hrudya Shri Kondur) - Silver (1887.1)
Gujarat (Viddhi Kishorbhai Godhani, Dhruvi Ashish Panchal, Maitri Ashwinbhai Amariya) - Bronze (1876.9)
Youth Team
Karnataka (Tilottama Sen, Anushka H Thokur, Hrudya Shri Kondur) - Gold (1887.1)
Haryana (Ameerah Arshad, Panaah Bhugra, Hazel) - Silver (1885.9)
Madhya Pradesh (Shrivalli Shrivastava, Gautami Bhanot, Navya Gupta) - Bronze (1881.7)
Sub Youth
Chhavi Pant (Uttarakhand) - Gold (632.5)
Pranjul Shree Somani (Haryana) - Silver (632.5)
Kopal Dubey (Meghalaya) - Bronze (630.6)
Deaf
Komal Milind Waghmare (Maharashtra) - Gold (625.3)
Mahit Sandhu (Chandigarh) - Silver (625.3)
Natasha Uday Joshi (Maharashtra) - Bronze (623.7)
Civilian
Pranjul Shree Somani (Haryana) - Gold (632.5)
Sakshi Sunil Padekar (Maharashtra) - Silver (632.1)
Tanishkaa Kumar Pillai (Gujarat) - Bronze (631.7)
Civilian Team
Maharashtra (Sakshi Sunil Padekar, Anshika Rakesh Chokhani, Dnyaneshwari Jayveer Patil) - Gold (1883.2)
Haryana (Samridhi Bebortha, Dhyuti Dhar, Teejan) - Silver (1882.8)
Uttar Pradesh (Sangeeta Singh, Samiya Mehar, Anushree Rai) - Bronze (1882.5)
Junior Civilian
Pranjul Shree Somani (Haryana) - Gold (632.5)
Tanishkaa Kumar Pillai (Gujarat) - Bronze (631.7)
Kajal Kumari (Jharkhand) - Silver (631)
Junior Civilian Team
Haryana (Shruti, Panaah Bugra, Rashmeet Kaur) - Gold (1883.5)
Maharashtra (Samiksha Subhash Patil, Anshika Rakesh Chokhani, Parigha Chetan Bele) - Silver (1879.5)
Maharashtra (Divya Rajesh Dhumal, Mayuri Laxman Pawar, Aditi Nitesh Kumar Singh) - Bronze (1877.3)
Master
Tejaswini Sawant (Maharashtra) - Gold
Anjali Mandar Bhagwat (Maharashtra) - Silver
Archana Singh (West Bengal) - Bronze. (ANI)