Jitu Rai does the double; Rahi wins 25M Pistol Gold

Pune, 16 Dec 2014: Indian Shooting's find of 2014, Jitu Rai has signed off the year with another Gold Medal. Jitu won the Men's 10m Air Pistol Gold at the 58th National Shooting Championship at the Balewadi Shooting Range, Pune with a comfortable win in the eight man final. Jitu who earlier won the Men's 50m Pistol Gold in the championship did the double with his Gold today.

Jitu topped the qualification charts with a score of 579/60. Four other shooters including CWG Silver Medalist PN Prakash shot 577. 2006 Melboure Commonwealth Games hero Samresh Jung shot 575 while Jitendra Vihute of Railways closed out the 8th spot with 574. In the Final Jitu established an early lead after 6 shots and from then on there was no looking back. At no point from then on was he remotely challenged and despite a 9 in his 19th shot he ended up with the title with a score of 202.3. Shahzar Rizvi of the Air Force finished 2nd with 198.8. Karnataka's Prakash nailed the final place on the podium with a score of 176.

It was double delight for Jitu as his team from Army Marksmanship Unit swept the team competition as well. Jitu along with Gurpreet Singh and Sukhwinder Singh shot a combined total of 1725. The Silver went to Punjab with 1712 while the Railways bagged 3rd place with 1708.

In the Women's 25m Sports Pistol events, CWG Champion and Olympian Rahi Sarnobat turned in another strong performance to take home the National title. In the semi-finals Rahi shot 17 hits in the 5 series to move into the Gold Medal match whileSurabhi Pathak and Anisa Sayeed were tied with 15 hits apiece. In the tiebreaker Pathak edged out Anisa 3-2 to move into the Gold medal match. Rahi bounced back from a 0 in the first series and outscored Pathak in the next 4 to clinch the Gold 8-4, while Anisa took on Shreya Gawande for the Bronze medal. ‪Anisa banked on her experience in the race to 7 and clinched the Bronze medal 7-3. Rahi topped the charts in the qualifications with a score of 581, 7 ahead of Anisa.

Rahi had a brilliant day today as she also won the team Gold for the category representing her state, Maharashtra. She along with Shreya Gawande and Shradha Nalamwar shot a total of 1704. Haryana finished second with a total of 1694 while the ONGC team settled for the Bronze with a total of 1687.

The 58^th National Shooting Championship Competitions are being held at the Shri Chhatrapti Shivaji Balewadi Shooting Range, Pune. The National Rifles Association of India in association with the Maharashtra Rifles Association of India is organizing the event from the 12th – 24th of December 2014.