Anjum, Annu Raj win titles in National Shooting Trials

India finish 2019 as number one shooting nation in worl

New Delhi:

World Championship silver medallist Anjum Moudgil won the women’s 50m rifle prone title in the National Shooting Trials (T6) here on Thursday.

Tarun Yadav won the men’s 50m rifle prone event while Annu Raj Singh clinched the women’s 25m pistol (sport pistol) gold at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range.

Anjum, who finished just outside the podium spots in the women’s 10m air rifle T7 trials on Wednesday, shot 619.4 in prone on Thursday to edge out former world champion Tejaswini Sawant, who shot 618.9, to second place.

In the corresponding men’s prone event, Delhi’s Tarun Yadav shot 623.9 to beat CISF’s Navdeep Singh Rathore who had a score of 622.7. The seasoned Sanjeev Rajput came third with 622.3.

In the only Olympic event final scheduled on the day, Annu Raj Singh, who represented the country in the recently concluded Rio World Cup, won by shooting a score of 37 in the finals. She was way ahead of Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat, who shot 29 to finish second.

Rahi, however, was in rousing form through the day, having shot a stellar 588 in qualification earlier to lead the top eight into the finals.

Pushpanjali Rana of the CISF and Neeraj Kaur of the BSF, who came second and third in qualification respectively, were way behind with 576 each.

Annu, however, shot a solid final to beat Rahi comfortably in the end.

Among other winners on the day, the Indian Navy’s Niraj Kumar won the junior men’s prone event, Ayushi Podder bagged junior women’s title while Tanu Raval took the top honour in junior women’s 25m pistol title.