Tilottama Sen wins back-to-back titles in national shooting trials

Tilottama Sen clinched consecutive 50m Rifle 3P titles at the National Selection Trials in Delhi. Aishwary Tomar topped men’s T2, while Manu Bhaker won the 25m Pistol T1 event. Swapnil Kusale and Rudraankksh Patil also impressed in rifle finals

Hyderabad: Tilottama Sen continued her excellent form at the start of the season, winning back-to-back 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women’s titles in the National Selection Trials for Group A shooters at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range in Delhi on Wednesday.

Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar, who finished third in T1 yesterday, secured the top spot in T2 of the men’s 50m Rifle 3P, while Manu Bhaker finished on top of T1 in the 25m Pistol Women event with a commanding win in the finals.

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Tilottama made it two in a row in the 50m Rifle 3P event with another composed performance in the finals today. She shot 361.5 after 35 shots, 3.1 points more than Ayushi Podder of Railways, who finished second with 358.4. Her teammate Surabhi Bharadwaj Rapole took third place with 348.3.

Manini Kaushik, who finished third in T1, took fourth place with 336.3, while Ashi Chouksey (326.4), Nupur Kumrawat (315.6), Anjum Moudgil (305.0) and Vidarsa K Vinod (302.8) completed the final lineup.

In the men’s T2, Aishwary posted a comfortable win, shooting 359.7 in the finals. Paris bronze medallist Swapnil Kusale finished second with 357.7, while former 10m World Champion Rudraankksh Patil took third place with 347.5.

T1 winner Niraj Kumar finished fourth with 336.3. Akshil Sheoran (326.5), Adriyan Karmakar (314.6), Nishan Budha (303.2) and Chain Singh (302.0) were the other finalists.

Manu Bhaker produced a consistent performance in the T1 finals to secure the top spot with 37, six more than Vibhuti Bhatia of Haryana, who finished second with 31. Divya TS of Karnataka finished third with 28.

Tejaswani Singh finished fourth with 26, after being eliminated in the shootout with Vibhuti. Rahi Sarnobat (22), Chinki Yadav (17), Rhythm Sangwan (12) were the other finalists. Esha Singh did not start the final after qualifying in the top eight.

The 10m Air Rifle T1 finals for both men and women will be held tomorrow along with the T2 finals of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol men.