Shooting | Manu Bhaker tightens her hold on sports pistol

Manu Bhaker excels in Olympic shooting trials, leading in women's sports pistol with Esha Singh close behind.

Manu Bhaker continued to assert her good form as she topped qualification in women’s sports pistol with 585 in the second Olympic shooting trials at the Dr. Karni Singh Range on Sunday.

Having shot 582 in the first trial, Manu was in a strong position to retain her Olympic quota in the event, with the final scheduled on April 22, apart from two more trials in Bhopal.

What matters most in these trials is the qualification score. The second quota holder in the event, and the world record holder, Rhythm Sangwan was able to highlight this aspect with a below par fare of 566. She had shot 574 in the earlier trial.

With Esha Singh shooting solid with 585 and 581, the indications were that Manu and Esha may not let anyone overtake them, albeit with Simranpreet Kaur Brar breathing down their necks with scores of 583 and 577.

It may be hard for Rhythm to catch up as she finds herself more than 25 points behind the two leaders. Rhythm will be competing in air pistol as well, even though Asian Games gold medallist Palak Gulia could make the race for Paris harder in that event.

Much in contrast, in men’s rapid fire pistol, the two Olympic quota winners, Anish Bhanwala and Vijayveer Sidhu stayed on top, even though they too had Bhavesh Shekhawat making it competitive, with back to back scores of 580 in the two trials.

The results (qualification): 25m rapid fire pistol: Men: 1. Anish Bhanwala 582; 2. Vijayveer Sidhu 580; 3. Bhavesh Shekhawat 580; 4. Ankur Goel 573; 5. Adarsh Singh 571.