Varun Tomar clinches air pistol gold in KSSM Shooting Championship

Varun Tomar clinched the men's 10m air pistol gold in the Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting Championship

Bhopal: Junior World Championships medallist Varun Tomar clinched the men’s 10m air pistol gold in the Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting Championship here on Thursday.

Uttar Pradesh’s Varun shot 241.9 in the final to overcome the challenge of army man Sharvan Kumar, who was 0.7 behind in a silver-winning effort with 241.2 points.

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Sagar Dangi, from the Army Marksmanship Unit (AMU) which had six shooters in the final, came third with 219.4 points.

Sharvan was the best shooter in qualifying with a score of 584, a clear two points ahead of teammate Ayush Chawla, who finished with 582 at the MP State Shooting Academy ranges.

Varun qualified fifth with a modest 581 in the 400-plus shooter field.

In the final, however, Varun, who had won the junior men’s team air pistol gold and an individual bronze at the World Championships in Cairo last year, showed his class, beginning the proceedings with a perfect 10.9.

A poor 9.1 in his 17th shot allowed Sharvan to catch up and even take the lead in the end stages.
As Sagar got eliminated in third place, Sharvan went into the final two shots of the 24-shot final, 0.6 ahead of Varun. Varun shot 10.4 and 9.4 to clinch gold, while Sharvan shot 9.6 and 8.9 to settle for silver.

In junior men’s air pistol, Haryana’s Kamaljeet emerged winner, finishing with a score of 243.7 in the final. Karnataka’s Jonathan Antony was second, while Uttar Pradesh’s Yash Tomar was third.