Dehradun, June 24 (IANS) The opening day of competitions at the National Selection Trials 3&4 (Group ‘A’ Rifle/Pistol) saw Olympian Anish Bhanwala emerge on top of the leaderboard in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (RFP) T3 Men’s qualification Stage 1, held here at the Trishul Shooting Range, Maharana Pratap Sports College, Raipur.

Anish delivered a solid and consistent performance, shooting a series of 99, 97, and 97, to finish with a total of 293 at the end of Round One of qualifications. His Paris Olympics teammate Vijayveer Sidhu (99,99,94) followed closely to take second spot with 292, while Anish’s teammate from Haryana, Mandeep Singh, stood third with 290.

Rounding off the top five were Pradeep Singh Shekhawat (Navy) with 290 and Uttarakhand’s own Ankur Goel with 289.

The top six shooters after Stage 2 of qualification will advance to the final of the event.

The action continues tomorrow (Wednesday, June 25, 2025), with Stage 2 of the men’s RFP T3 qualifications, preceding the final. Also scheduled on Day 2 are two more finals, the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women and the 10m Air Rifle Men.

These trials will help in shaping the Indian shooting team for the 16th Asian Shooting Championships 2025 in Kazakhstan in August and the ISSF World Cup in Ningbo, China, in September.

The country’s elite rifle and pistol shooters get into this selection phase following an encouraging run in the double-legged South American ISSF World Cup tour, which marked the beginning of the new international calendar, and the latest edition in Munich. Across both legs in Argentina and Peru, Indian shooters reached 32 finals, including mixed-team medal rounds, and brought home a total of 15 medals, six of them gold.

As per the selection Criteria, only eligible shooters in Group “A” will be allowed to participate. The National Selection Trials 3 & 4 will cover all Olympic Rifle and Pistol events and will be limited to a select group of top-ranked shooters. This includes 50 slots each for 10m Air Rifle (Men & Women) and 10m Air Pistol (Men & Women), 30 slots each for 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Men & Women), 20 slots for 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (Men), and 30 slots for 25m Sport Pistol (Women).

In Munich, India registered their third top-three finish this year in four World Cups, with two gold and two bronze medals. They not only improved their standing from joint third last year to sole this year but also doubled their medal count, including the gold count, from last year’s Munich World Cup.

–IANS

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