Esha Singh shines in national trials with clutch final round

Olympian Esha Singh, Vidarsa Vinod, and Parth Mane emerged victorious on Day 3 of the National Shooting Selection Trials, showcasing strong performances in a field packed with India's top shooters

Hyderabad: Olympian and reigning mixed team pistol world champion Esha Singh was among the three winners on the third day of the National Selection Trials 3 & 4 for Group A rifle and pistol shooters, currently underway at the Trishul Shooting Range in the Uttarakhand capital on Thursday.

While Telangana’s Esha won the 25m pistol women T3 competition, Kerala’s Vidarsa Vinod took the 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) T4 honours, and Maharashtra’s Parth Rakesh Mane won the 10m air rifle men T4 title, in what was another day of intense competition among the best rifle and pistol shooters of India.

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Esha shot a 580 to take third spot in qualifications but stamped her class in the finals when it mattered most — towards the end stages — to completely blow away Maharashtra’s Abhidnya Ashok Patil, who had to settle for silver. Tamil Nadu’s Niveditha Nair came third.

Abhidnya, who had topped qualification with a quality 585, was ahead of Esha by two till the seventh series of the 10-series final, but the Olympian finished with two perfect series of five hits and four hits in the final series to end on a score of 41. Abhidnya scored a total of seven points in the final three series to end with 36, while Niveditha exited after the ninth series to take third with a score of 30.

In the men’s 10m air rifle T4, as is the norm in international competitions, the eighth and final qualification berth went at 630.6 after 60 shots. Two-time Olympian and 3P specialist Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar topped it with 633.5, while Parth qualified fourth with 631.9.

Winner of the T3 trial Uma Mahesh Maddineni took the early lead in the finals, which also featured former world number one and world record holder Divyansh Singh Panwar, along with three shooters from the Army.

Junior World Championship medallist Parth, who was hovering around third throughout the initial stages, went into joint lead with Aishwary only after the 16th single shot of the eliminations stage. The 17th, a 10.7, took him to sole lead and he held on gamely after that to take the win, finishing with 251.8.

Aishwary’s chase fell 0.3 short of Parth as he took second, while Uma settled for third place on the day.

In the women’s 3P T4 final, Kerala’s Vidarsa Vinod got the better of a star-studded field, finishing with 462.7 after 45 shots, to edge out Punjab’s former world championship silver medallist and two-time Olympian Anjum Moudgil by 0.3 points. Haryana’s Nischal, a World Cup silver medallist, was third.

Earlier, T3 winner Sift Kaur Samra of Punjab topped qualifications with a superb 594, tipping world championship medallist Mehuli Ghosh by a point. The winner took the sixth qualifying spot with a score of 587.