Ayonika Paul, Vijayveer Sidhu and Sheeraz Sheikh win in shooting trials

Olympian Ayonika Paul, Vijayveer Sidhu and Sheeraz Sheikh won the Women’s 10m Air Rifle T1, Junior Men’s 25m Pistol T2 and Men’s Skeet T2 national Shooting trials respectively, with the Rifle/Pistol trials in Thiruvananthapuram happening simultaneously with the Shotgun trials in Delhi.

Ayonika overcame a quality eight-woman field with the likes of Tokyo 2020 quota holders Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil among competitors, to register a high score of 252.0 en route to victory. Her effort was just 0.9 behind Apurvi’s world record of 252.9.

Apurvi did come in third with 229.8 but it was Himachal’s Zeena Khitta who had the best day in Women’s Air Rifle, coming in second with 251.1.

Zeena also won the junior women’s trials in the same event and also had the best qualifying score on the day with a 630.0 to show after 60 shots.

Vijayveer Sidhu of Chandigarh won the junior men’s 25m Pistol with an aggregate of 585. He had three inner 10s more than second placed Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu of Punjab.

Earlier on Monday at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in New Delhi, Sheeraz Sheikh of Uttar Pradesh won the Men’s Skeet T2 trials with a top quality 57 out of 60 hits in the final. He got the better of Rajasthan’s Anantjeet Singh Naruka who shot 53.