Haryana’s Ameerah Arshad produced a calm and clinical performance under immense pressure to secure the gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle event at the 68th National Shooting Championship Competitions (Rifle) at the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy in Bhopal. In a gripping final that went down to the wire, Ameerah edged out Railways’ Rajshree Anilkumar Sancheti by the narrowest of margins, finishing just 0.1 point ahead.
Ameerah signed off with a winning score of 251.9, while Sancheti had to settle for silver on 251.8. Chhattisgarh’s Pranju Shree Somani claimed the bronze with 230.5. The remaining finalists saw Tilottama Sen finish fourth with 208.9, followed by Kajal Kumari (187.9) and Sakshi Sunil Padekar (166.2). Haryana’s Ramita placed seventh with 145.1, while qualification topper Prerana Padmakar Morey, who had earlier led the field with a superb 632.5, finished eighth with 122.7.
The qualification round had been tightly contested, with Prerana Padmakar Morey and Pranju Shree Somani jointly topping the standings on identical scores of 632.5. Sakshi Sunil Padekar followed closely with 632.1, while Ameerah qualified fourth on 631.5. Kajal Kumari (631.0), Tilottama Sen (630.8), Ramita (630.8), and Sancheti (630.7) completed the top eight.
Later in the day, attention shifted to the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in Faridabad, where Uttar Pradesh’s Zuhair Khan delivered a composed display to win the men’s trap gold at the 68th NSCC (Shotgun). The junior men’s trap bronze medallist added his first senior national title by finishing the final with 43 hits. Uttarakhand’s Shapath Bhardwaj claimed silver with 40 hits, while Olympian Kynan Chenai took bronze with 33. Ahvar Rizvi finished fourth with 26 hits, followed by Vivaan Kapoor (22) and Udayvir Singh Jajee (19).
Vivaan Kapoor had earlier topped the qualification with a score of 121, while Zuhair qualified second on 120+3. Ahvar Rizvi also shot 120 but finished third after a shoot-off. Shapath Bhardwaj (119+3), Kynan Chenai (119+2), and Udayvir Singh Jajee (118+6) rounded off the finalists, with Mohd Asad Sultan narrowly missing out after a shoot-off despite scoring 118+3.
In the men’s trap team event, Uttar Pradesh clinched gold with an aggregate of 345 through Ahvar Rizvi, Mohd Asad Sultan, and Rayyan Rizvi. Punjab secured silver on 342, while Uttarakhand took bronze, also finishing on 342.
The rifle competitions also saw Karnataka’s Tilottama Sen enjoy a golden day. She captured the junior women’s 10m air rifle title with an impressive 253.1, ahead of Maharashtra’s Samiksha Subhash Patil (250.0) and Haryana’s Ramita (230.0). Tilottama then completed a double by winning the youth women’s final with 251.6, with Ameerah Arshad claiming silver on 251.4 and Maharashtra’s Avantika Rajendra Shelke taking bronze.
In team events, Haryana dominated the women’s and junior women’s 10m air rifle competitions, while Karnataka topped the youth women’s team standings, underlining the depth of talent on display at the championships.