Shweta, Niraj steal the limelight

By Our Sports Reporter

PHILLAUR, NOV. 24. Juniors came to the fore and some records were felled, making the penultimate day of the 44th National shooting championship an interesting one.

In the limelight were Shweta Chaudhary of Indian Airlines and Niraj Kumar of Navy, both juniors, who also put up a splendid effort in the senior section.

While 14-year-old Shweta won the women's Air Pistol event with ease, Niraj gave veteran shooter A.P. Subbaiah some tense moments before finishing second in the men's Rifle Three- Position event.

Shweta, a class IX student from Faridabad, won the women's title with a score of 477.8 points, leading with a record score of 380 before the final, which also gave her the junior gold. Another upcoming shooter, Sonia Rana, had trailed her by four points before the final, but the gap was increased by Shweta, Sonia finishing with 472.4 for the silver. The bronze went to Annu Raj Singh of Uttar Pradesh, who jumped from her eighth position before the final.

In the men's Three-Position event, Niraj trailed Subbaiah (1142) by eight points going into the final. But with Subbaiah shooting poorly, Niraj had a good chance of taking the gold, but faded out to take the second place. The Navy shooter was still happy with the silver, at least ensuring that the experienced duo of T.C. Pallangappa and Dilip Sawant, who were just two and three points behind him, did not overtake him.

In the final, Niraj struck four 10s in his first five shots, even as Subbaiah shot two poor sevens. After the sixth shot, the gap had been narrowed down to just 1.8 points, but two subsequent fires of 7.6 each by Niraj let the chance slip away.

Niraj eventually finished with 1229.7 points, 2.5 less than Pallangappa, while Pallangappa and Sawant were very close at 1225.4 and 1225.2, respectively. Niraj however had the satisfaction of setting a new record in the junior section, improving fellow Navy man Manoj Kumar's mark of 1124 by a good 10 points.

The results: Men's Rifle Three Position (50m): 1. A.P. Subbaiah (Army) 1232.2, 2. Niraj Kumar (Navy) 1229.7, 3. T.C. Pallangappa (Army) 1225.4.

Team: 1. Army (Charan Singh 1128, Pallangappa 1132, Subbaiah 1142) 3402, 2. Navy 3376, 3. CISF 3347.

Civilian: 1. Nilesh Rane (Rly) 1134 (NMR, old 1124, Vishwajit Shinde, Phillaur, 1999), 2. Arun Warshi 1130, 3. Vishwajit Shinde (Rly) 1121.

Civilian team: 1. Railways (Joydeep Banerjee 1087, Vishwajit Shinde 1121, Nilesh Rane 1134) 3342, 2. Maharashtra 3153.

Juniors: 1. Niraj Kumar 1134 (NMR, old 1124, Manoj Kumar, Phillaur, 1999), 2. Sushil Ghale 1122, 3. Sudhir Kumar Singh 1112.

Junior civilian: 1. Jaspreet S. Dhaliwal (Pun) 1115 (NMR, old 1084, Praveen Rawat, Asansol, 1996), 2. V. Vivek (Ker) 1076, 3. Sibu U. (Ker) 1071.

Women's Air Pistol (10m): 1. Shweta Chaudhary (IA) 477.8 (380 in preliminary NMR, old Shilpi Singh 378, Langkawi, 1997), 2. Sonia Rana (CISF) 472.4, 3. Annu Raj Singh (UP) 467.1.

Team: 1. CISF (Shilpi Singh 368, Sonia Rana 376, Sonika Manon 362) 1106, 2. Indian Airlines 1103, 3. Army 1103.

Junior: 1. Shweta Chaudhary (IA) 380 (NMR, old 378, Shilpi Singh 378, Langkawi, 1997), 2. Sonia Rana (CISF), 3. Seema Tomar (IA) 372.

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