Shooting: Divyansh smashes world record as Tokyo quota holders shine in trials

New Delhi, February 10, 2021

Promising youngster Divyansh Panwar (Rajasthan) hogged the limelight by smashing the finals world record in10M Air Rifle as Tokyo quota holders performed creditably on day two of the National Selection Trials 3 & 4 for Rifle/Pistol events, at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Wednesday.

Apart from Panwar, the other winners were Saurabh Chaudhary (10M Air Pistol T4), Chinky Yadav (Women’s 25M Pistol T4) and Tejaswini Sawant (Women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions T4).

The day belonged to Panwar as he smashed the finals world record with a score of 253.1 to win the 10M Air Rifle T4 trials.

After qualifying third with a score of 629.7, Divyansh outgunned a field full of young Indian talent to win the final on the last shot, from yet another Tokyo quota holder Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar.

The two were involved in a seesaw battle for supremacy from the 12th single shot onwards and went into the 24th and final shot tied at 242.2. They were also tied at the end of the 23rd shot at 232.

Current world number one Divyansh, then showed his class with 10.9 in the final shot to easily go past the world record.

Aishwarya hit an equally commendable 10.4, to fall short of the record mark of 252.8, by just 0.2 points.

Saurabh Chaudhary continued his dominance of the 10M Air Pistol winning with a 243.1 in the finals. Sarabjot Singh (Haryana) was second and Ravinder Singh (Army), the winner of the T3 trials yesterday, came in third.

Saurabh has now won two of the four trials conducted this year and made it to all the finals, besides coming out top at 1st Asian Online Shooting Championship held last month.

Another quota holder who has been having a good run in the trials is Chinky Yadav and the Madhya Pradesh girl did her cause no harm, coming up trumps in the Women’s 25m Pistol T4 competition, backing up the T3 victory in the same event she had yesterday.

Chinky also has made it to all the four trial finals this year and now has won two of them. She shot 37 in the final to leave Tejaswini of Haryana behind on 33.

Manu Bhaker also made it to another final, topping qualification with a solid 587. She however finished fifth in the finals.

Tejaswini Sawant won the Women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions T4 event. She shot 456.7 in the finals to make it past another seasoned shooter Lajja Gauswami, who shot 455.

NNN