National shooting championship | Ravinder and Sejal win mixed air pistol gold for Army

Army duo wins mixed air pistol gold at National shooting championship; ITBP claims bronze in thrilling match.

Ravinder Singh and Sejal Kamble clinched the mixed air pistol gold for the Army with a 16-12 victory over Pranavi Dwaram and Mukesh Nelavalli in the 67th National shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Saturday.

The Army pair had topped qualification and it was no surprise that it was able to assert itself in the gold medal match.

Jatin Chaudhary and Kavita Dhoundiyal bounced back from the brink of defeat to beat Anjali Choudhary and Vinayak Kumbhar of Assam Rifles Marksmanship Unit 17-15 to clinch a memorable bronze for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

However, the biggest surprise was that Sarabjot Singh, the mixed event bronze medallist of the Paris Olympics, and fellow Olympian Rhythm Sangwan, missed the medal round on count back and placed Haryana fifth among 27 teams. The Haryana pair shot 571 and lost the qualification for the bronze medal match 14x to 20x to the Assam Rifles team.

The air pistol triple gold medallist, Suruchi Phogat added another gold by winning the mixed air pistol youth crown in partnership with Samrat Rana, outclassing the qualification topper, the Uttarakhand pair of Abhinav Deshwal and Yashasvi Joshi 16-2.

The Karnataka pair of Gamberya Gowda and Jonathan Antony bagged the junior mixed team gold, pushing the Andhra Pradesh team of Pranavi Dwaram and Mukesh Nelavalli to its second silver for the day.

The results: 10m air pistol: Mixed team: 1. Army (Ravinder Singh, Sejal Kamble) 16 (579); 2. Andhra Pradesh (Pranavi Dwaram, Mukesh Nelavalli) 12 (577); 3. ITBP (Jatin Chaudhary, Kavita Dhoundiyal) 17 (573); 4. Assam Rifles Marksmanship Unit (Anjali Choudhary, Vinayak Kumbhar) 15 (571).