Shooting: Bhavesh, Simranpreet Top Second 25M Pistol Olympic Selection Trials

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New winners emerged at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting ranges in New Delhi where the first-ever Olympic Selection Trials (OST) for Rifle and Pistol are underway. Bhavesh Shekhawat and Simranpreet Kaur Brar won the 25M men’s rapid-fire pistol (RFP) and women’s pistol OST T2 trials respectively.

Bhavesh shot 34 in the RFP final, comfortably holding off OST T1 winner Anish Bhanwala (29), to extend his good form in the trials. Vijayveer Sidhu was third with 22 hits. Adarsh Singh (17) and Ankur Goel (13) finished fourth and fifth finishing outside the podium places again.

"If you look at the Olympics, this performance was not that good. I will try to improve in the next trials in Bhopal," Bhavesh Shekhawat told myKhel after selection trials.

Bhavesh, who won the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol (RFP) event, in the 21st Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial (KSSM) Shooting Championship (Pistol) last year claimed Abhinav Bindra is his idol "I started shooting after seeing Abhinav Bindra sir. I have been shooting for almost 10 years."

All three shooters have about the same scores, so it'll be interesting to see what happens in the next round of trials in Bhopal next month. Also, Anish and Vijayveer have two bonus points each for winning the Olympic quota.

Shooting Olympic Trials Women's Category

In the women’s pistol, Simranpreet, who has also been having a good run in the trials, got 37 hits in the 10 series of five-shots each, to emerge triumphant. She too held off OST T1 winner and Olympian Manu Bhaker who signed off with 35 hits on the day.

Esha Singh with 30 hits took third and the final podium points available. Rhythm Sangwan (24), the second quota holder in the event, finished fourth while Abhidnya Patil (16) came fifth.