Akhil Sheoran Extends Rich Form With Dortmund Win

Polish Grand Prix: Akhil Sheoran extended his rich vein of form, winning the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) competition at the ISAS Dortmund in Germany, with a score which equalled the existing finals world record held by the Czech Republic’s Jiri Privratsky.

New Delhi, March 21 (IANS) Akhil Sheoran extended his rich vein of form, winning the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) competition at the ISAS Dortmund in Germany, with a score that equalled the existing finals world record held by the Czech Republic’s Jiri Privratsky.

Akhil shot 466.1 to clinch his second win of the rifle/pistol squad’s European tour, after he had won last week at the Polish Grand Prix.

Ashi Chouksey then brought more cheer for the Indian squad winning the women’s 3P with a finals score of 464, 0.8 clear of runner-up Sanja Vukasinovic of Serbia. Ashi finished second in qualifying with a score of 594 across the three positions of kneeling, prone and standing, to make the top eight.

It was a double delight for India in the men’s 3P as Akhil’s teammate Aishwary Tomar finished second with 462.9 while Great Britain’s Dean Bale was third with 451.2.

Aishwary had posted the higher qualification score however, topping the round with a scorching 596, a point below the existing world record. Akhil’s 593 gave him the fifth qualifying spot.

Niraj Kumar shot 592 to finish eighth in qualification and fifth in the final while Swapnil Kusale’s score of 589 was not enough to get him in amongst the top eight.

The high scores also caused heartbreak among the Indian women where Olympian Anjum Moudgil and Paris quota holders Sift Kaur Samra and Shriyanka Sadangi could not make the final, despite posting high scores of 590 (both Anjum and Sift for 10th and 12th spots) and 587 respectively.

Select top-ranked Indian rifle and pistol shooters have been on a competition tour of Europe and have been giving a good account of themselves both in the recently concluded Grand Prixes in Wroclaw, Poland, as well as at the ongoing ISAS Dortmund, which is a traditional international season-opener for the sport in Germany.

In the air events held earlier Indian men finished 1-2 in both the 10m Air Rifle matches, with Arjun Babuta and Divyansh Singh Panwar emerging winners and Rudrankksh Patil coming second in both of them. Ramita also won both the women’s 10m air rifle matches. World record scores were also surpassed by the likes of Divyansh and Ramita.

Arjun Cheema also made both the men’s 10m air pistol finals but finished outside podium places.