Harvinder sets mark

NEW DELHI, April 18: Age can never be a deterrent if one has the will power to achieve goals. This is precisely what defending champion Harv...

NEW DELHI, April 18: Age can never be a deterrent if one has the will power to achieve goals. This is precisely what defending champion Harvinder Kaur Waraich, 40, proved when she retained the title in the 10-metre Air Pistol event for women at the Dr Karni Singh Range here today.

The mother of two kids, competing in her 13th national championship, won the event by scoring 477.8, which was good enough for a national record, erasing the previous best of 475.20, created by Shilpi Singh of Delhi in the November Commonwealth Shooting Championship in Malaysia.

Delhi girls Sonika Menan and Shilpi Singh claimed the silver and bronze in that order.

The other gold at stake on the day was claimed by another Maharashtra8217;s Anajali Vedpathak. She scored 654.9 to edge out the much-famed Roopa Unnikrishnan of Tamil Nadu by a mere 0.4 points difference. Anajali8217;s teammate, Deepali Deshpande won the bronze at 650.7.

Harvinder Kaur, an Inspector with the Mumbai Police, had a score of 379, which itself was better thanthe previous best of 376. Though just two points were separating Harvinder and Sonika 377 before the start of the final, what clinched the issue in favour of the former was her remarkable consistency. Starting with a poor 8.5, she improved with every shot, scoring over 10 on six occasions with the maximum of 10.7. In between she had nine-plus two times before culminating with a 9.9.

All the while, Sonika was not able to recover from the poor start 8212; she had a sequence of eight-plus in her first three shots 8212; but was conscious of teammate Shilpi Singh, a 12th class student of Kendriya Vidyala RKP, Sector 2, breathing down her neck in the adjacent lane.

Shilpi, who started the final at 374, was down by a mere 0.6 points at the sixth attempt but had narrowed down to just 0.4 with the last shot to go. Holding her nerves, the experienced Sonika withstood the pressure by scoring 10 while Shilpi rounded off with 9.7 for the bronze.

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However, the Sports Rifle 3 position final proved to be a touch and goaffair, despite Anajali leading by four points at the start. As Anajali put it, 8220;it was a nice revenge,8221; after she lost the bronze to Rupa in Air Rifle. Anajali8217;s rifle concked yesterday.

RESULTS
MEN: Skeet After 75 shots: Sarvadeep Mann 71, Rao Inderjit Singh 70, H.S. Bedi 68.

Rapid-fire after 30 shots: B.L. Dagga 284, Ajab Rao 283, Tapas Rao 283, Poonam Kumar 281, Jaspal Rana 280.

WOMEN: 10m Air Pistol: Harvinder Kaur Waraich Mah 4778 NMR, Old 475.20 Shilpi Singh, Sonika Manon Del 469.7, Shilpi Singh Del 468.9.Team: Maharashtra Vandana Narkar, Harvinder Kaur Waraich, Sheila Kanungo 1110, Delhi Seema Gaur, Shilpi Singh, Sonika Manon 1106, Uttar Pradesh Sonal Ramendra, Kunti Malik 1082.

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Juniors: Delhi Shilpi Singh, Sushma Rana, Sonia Rana 1094, Infantry Kids Murugeshwari, Meenakshi, Lata Batikar 955.

Sports Rifle 3 P: Anajali Vedpathak Mah 654. 9, Roopa Unnikrishnan TN 654.5, Deepali Deshpande Mah 650.7

Team: CISFKuheli Gangulee, Zeny Thakkar, Sumita Ghosh 1090, Army Guppaji Nagra, Uma Panicker, Birmati 1049, West Bengal Maya Ray, Sangeeta Ghatak, Mita Mukherjee 1026. Juniors: Usha Sharma INF 532, Raj Kumari INF 524, Meena Kumari INF 517.