New Delhi, Dec 16 (PTI) Aurangabad teenager Riya Shirish Thatte stunned a star-studded field to win the women’s 25m pistol event at the 67th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) here on Monday.
Riya got the better of Punjab’s Simranpreet Kaur Brar 7-2 in a shoot-off for gold, after both had tied at 31-hits in the 8-series of five-shot decider. Olympian and former Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat was third with 25 hits.
Simranpreet rounded off a great year to win the junior women’s title on the day to add to her senior silver, this time winning the gold via shoot-off 5-2 over Haryana’s Payal, after both had tied on 34-hits-a-piece. Riya won bronze in this category with 30-hits.
Riya’s father Shirish, a former national level shooter himself and her first coach, said, “She had tears in her eyes. There is no range in Aurangabad and we used to travel 250kms to Pune’s Balewadi range where Akshay Ashtaputre, also the mentor of Swapnil Kusale, has been coaching her for the last five years. She wants to shoot and earn laurels for India.” The senior finals field, besides Simranpreet and Rahi, also had top former internationals like Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj Singh.
Earlier, Simranpreet topped both the qualification stages with identical scores of 584. Riya, while qualifying second in the juniors, managed to make the final, clinching the eighth and last qualifying spot with 576. PTI BS PDS PDS
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