State shooters hit right spot
Telangana shooters dished out emphatic performances to clinch gold in the men’s team category and silvers in the individual section at the 60th National Shooting Championship held recently at the CRPF ranges in Kadarpur, Gurgaon (Haryana).
In the team category of 300m rifle prone junior men’s, Telangana boys Abid Ali Khan (588/600), Aga Mohammed Zainulabedin (565/600) and Mohammad Abdul Shahid (562/600) tallied 1715/1800, a new national record, to leave their rivals from Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan who finished with silvers and bronzes respectively.
Thereafter, Zainulabedin also secured a silver medal in 3 position standard rifle event and another silver in 3 position standard rifle event in the civilian championship. He had earlier won a bronze at the G. V. Mavalankar Shooting championship in the Three Position standard rifle junior men’s event. Sandeep Kumar (gold in prone men), Mohammed Abdul Rahaman (bronze in prone men) and Divya Koorakula (bronze in prone junior women) were the other medallists from the State.
Meanwhile in the 300m rifle prone civilian team event at the National championship, Telangana boys settled for bronze. Preetpal Singh Major scored 587 followed by Mohammad Abdul Shahid 562 and S.M. Tahir Quadri 557. Uttar Pradesh topped the group while Maharashtra boys took silver.
Gujarat’s Pruthviraj Ayachi (589) won the gold in both the matches followed by Telangana’s Abid Ali Khan (588) who clinched silver while Delhi’s Abhay Kumar Goel (579) settled for bronze in both the matches.
Both matches in the individual standard rifle three position junior men produced identical results as Shashank Tripati took the gold with 536 points followed by Telangana’s Aga Mohammed Zainulabedin (460) and Nitish Kumar took the bronze with 437.