Shooter Tejaswini Sawant reigns supreme in 50m rifle 3P trials

Senior shooter Tejaswini Sawant out-staged Punjab's Anjum Moudgil, in a battle of two Olympic quota holders, to win the Women's 50M Rifle 3 positions T1 trials, at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range on Monday.

The former world champion from Maharashtra, aced the qualifying field with 1171, before getting into a gritty up and down battle with her younger rival, to prevail with an effort of 458.7. Anjum finished with 457.8.

Earlier Anjum had qualified third with 1167, behind Madhya Pradesh's Sunidhi Chauhan, who shot 1168.

Haryana's Nishchal, who took the final eighth qualifying spot, finished a creditable third in the finals, upstaging Lajja Gauswami, another senior shooter who made it to the finals.

Last week, reigning world number one Elavenil Valarivan and Assam's Hriday Hazarika won the women's and men's 10m Air Rifle T1 national selection trials respectively.

Gujarat's Elavenil shot 628.3 after the 60-shot qualification round, to enter the final in fourth place. Rajasthan's Nisha Kanwar top-scored with 631.8 as she led a strong eight-woman field into the finals.

The world number one turned out too strong in the final, beating senior shooter and Olympian Ayonika Paul of the Railways comfortably.

Elavenil finished with 251.7, two points ahead of second-placed Ayonika. Shriyanka Sadangi of Odisha finished third.

In the men's event, Assam's Hriday Hazarika delivered a start to finish performance in the finals, beating Madhya Pradesh's Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, a Tokyo 2020 quota holder, 253.2 to 251.5.

( With inputs from ANI )