Elizabeth Susan Koshy Stamps Class to Win the Women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions Gold at the 59th Shooting Nationals

Elizabeth Susan Koshy

Elizabeth Susan Koshy, hailed for some time as one of the best woman rifle shooters of the country as she came up the junior ranks, stamped her class to sweep aside a quality eight woman final field and win the Women’s 50M Rifle 3 Positions Gold at the 59th National Shooting Championship being held at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting range in the national capital. Anjum Moudgil of Haryana won the Silver while Gaayathri N of Tamil Nadu won the Bronze.

Elizabeth representing Kerala made it to the finals in third position at the end of the qualification round with a score of 578, while Anjum finished qualifying in pole position, three points ahead of Elizabeth. In the finals however, Elizabeth was in a league of her own, leading from the front across the three shooting positions of Kneeling, Prone and Standing in that order, to register a score of 459.3, way ahead of second-placed Anjum who finished with a score of 448.8 in the finals. The quality of the win can be judged by the fact that the final lineup had the likes of former World Championship and Commonwealth Games Gold medalist Tejaswini Sawant who finished fourth, apart from Anjum who herself is an Asian Championship Bronze medalist.

Tejaswini along with veteran Anjali Bhagwat and Priyal Keni however won the Team Gold for Maharashtra in the event, in which the Railways won Silver and Haryana won the Bronze. The day also saw the beginning of the qualifying rounds of the Men’s 10M Air Rifle event.