Dehradun/New Delhi, June 7 (IANS) Himanshu Dhillon of Haryana clinched a last shot win over Parth Rakesh Mane of Maharashtra in the men’s 10m air rifle final, even as Uttar Pradesh’s Deeksha Vaishya and Madhya Pradesh’s Suraj Sharma won their respective matches, as the first finals of the T4 national selection trials for Rifle and Pistol shooters, unfolded at the Trishul Shooting range of the Maharana Pratap Sports College in Dehradun on Sunday.

Himanshu was 0.2 behind Parth ahead of the 24th and final shot of the men’s air rifle final and a 10.6 to the latter’s 10.3, sealed the win by the narrowest of margins as Himanshu ended with 252.2 on the board. Delhi’s Parth Makhija took bronze.

In the women’s air rifle, Deeksha began strong, going into the lead in the second five-shot series and despite a strong field chasing her, held strong to ward off Ashi Chouksey by 1.2, finishing with 252.7. Railways’ Sonam Uttam Maskar took bronze.

In the third final of the day, Suraj Sharma took the win with a score of 29 in the men’s 25m rapid-fire pistol (RFP) final. Ankur Goel of Uttarakhand was second with 27, while Bhavesh Shekhawat was third with 25 hits.

In the national rankings however, Parth took top spot while Himanshu came in second. After the T4 women’s air rifle, Sonam Maskar benefitted most, going up to second behind Elavenil Valarivan, while Navy veteran Omkar Singh took second spot behind Anish in the domestic men’s RFP rankings after the day’s results.

The T4 Rifle/Pistol trials are important from the upcoming Asian Games perspective, where 15 men and 15 women shooters will participate in the 28 shooting events. The 12-member Shotgun team has already been announced while the Rifle and Pistol teams will be announced after these trials.

–IANS

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