Swapnil Kusale maintained his commendable grip over the rifle 3-position event as he won the second match with a 2.1 point margin over the Olympic quota holder Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar in the National shooting selection trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range on Friday.
Even though he qualified with a modest score of 1168 — the same as Sanjeev Rajput, who had beaten him to the top spot by a slender margin in the final of the first trial — Swapnil was in total control in the 45-shot final.
Qualification topper Niraj Kumar (1177) settled for the fifth spot, ahead of Sanjeev and Olympian Chian Singh.
Parul Kumar shot the second best score of 1171 in qualification and placed third eventually. Aishwary fought the final well, but had to be worried about allowing his qualification score slipping to 1163.
World Cup gold medalist Akhil Sheoran shot 1164 in qualification and placed fourth in the final.
The competition will continue with air rifle events for men and women from Saturday.
The results: 50m rifle 3-position: Men: 1. Swapnil Kusale 462.0 (1168); 2. Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar 459.9 (1163); 3. Parul Kumar 450.2 (1171).
