Anil Kumar wins 10m Air Rifle as Gagan Narang misses out on medal
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Anil Kumar put in a strong performance to clinch the gold in 10m Air Rifle in the 18th KSS Memorial Shooting Championship while 2012 Olympic medalist Gagan Narang missed out on a medal after topping qualification. In 10m Air Rifle youth, Shahu Mane edged out Aishwariya Tomar for gold.
The National Rifle Association of Indiaās (NRAI) prestigious national tournament, the 18th KSS Memorial Shooting Championship 2018 and Selection Trials, kicked off on June 13. With a sudden outbreak of Nipah virus in South India, the NRAI was forced to shift the venue in the last moment from Thiruvananthapuram to New Delhi.
On the second day of the tournament at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi, Madhya Pradeshās Anil Kumar put in a strong performance to clinch the gold in 10m Air Rifle as Gagan Narang, who earlier topped the charts in the qualification round, missed out on a medal after failing to start strong in the final. The 2012 London Olympic medallist startedĀ with a string of below 10 scores, which put him on the bottom of the table early and he couldnāt recover from that, becoming the second shooter to be eliminated.
Anil scored 246.7 to finish on top while Air Forceās Manoj Dalal scored 245.2 to take silver, and his teammate Deepak Kumar finished with bronze with a score of 224.6. Initially, it was Dalal who led after first two series, however, he failed to maintain his head after a string of poor scores and Anil inched ahead by a decimal point after the 14th shot. After 16 shots, Anil widened his lead with a score of 164.3 and maintained his grip on gold.
In the 10m Air Rifle youth, Mane of Maharashtra grabbed gold with aĀ score of 251.1 while Aishwarya Tomar of Madhya Pradesh clinched silver with 249.9 and Rajasthanās Yashwardhan, who was in his second final, had to settle for bronze with score 229.9.
In the 10m Air Rifle youth category, it was Yashwardhan who bagged gold, Mane had to settle for silver and Lagad Gorak got
