Aayushi shines with top score

The Uttar Pradesh markswoman, who had got past 392 only once, was a revelation as she opened with a 99 and then fired a perfect 100 before letting out another 99.

She closed out her series with a 98 to sneak ahead of Anjali in third position by virtue of her 30 inner 10s as against 29 by her more fancied rival at the Balewadi ranges.

In the finals on Tuesday, in-form Suma Shirur, who posted 397 on the opening day of the ISSF ranking event, and Priya Agarwal would take on Aayushi and Anjali. The corresponding men’s event also saw a slight upheaval as Parmendra Kumar of Army leapfrogged to the top after Aribam Dicky Sharma had held the position for two days.

Kumar and Sharma were tied on 593 but the former finished ahead as he had 43 bulls eyes as compared to his rival’s 40. Also, Kumar shot two perfect rounds of 100s, and a 99 and three 98s.

UP shooters topped the medals tally with five gold, three silver and one bronze medal, one gold ahead of Maharashtra. By numbers, though, the home state had nosed ahead after collecting 10 medals as against nine by UP. Delhi were lying third.

Results: ISSF Ranking (finalists): Men: 10M Air Rifle: Parmendra Kumar (Army, 593) 1; Aribam Dicky Sharma (Army, 593) 2; PT Raghunath (Navy, 591) 3.
10m Air Pistol: Omkar Singh (Navy, 578) 1; Om Prakash (Army, 576) 2; Vijay Singh (Army, 576)3.

Women: 10M Air Rifle: Suma Shirur (Rlys, 397) 1; Priya Agarwal (Rlys, 397) 2; Aayushi Gupta (UP, 396) 3.

10m Air Pistol: Heena Sidhu (Pnb, 387); Annu Raj Singh (AI, 382) 2; Shweta Chaudhry (ONGC, 382) 3.