Arpit, Adarsh clinch gold on Day 1 of KSS Memorial Shooting meet

National team shooter Arpit Goel of Delhi bagged the top honours in the 25 metre Rapid Fire Pistol (senior) men category whereas in the junior category Adarsh Singh clinched the gold with a difference of just one point in the KSS Memorial Shooting Championship here on Wednesday.

In the senior 25m Rapid Fire Pistol round, Arpit asserted his dominance from the initial phases and remained unchallenged with a score of 34 points.

Five points behind him at 29, Shivam Shukla of the Air Force bagged the silver while 2012 Olympic Silver medallist Vijay Kumar on a comeback trail scored a total of 24 points to finish with a bronze medal.

In the team event, Vijay Kumar led from the front as he notched up a score of 579 for Haryana. His teammates, Adarsh Singh and Harpreet Singh looked in great touch as the team scored a cumulative 1723 to annex the gold.

The army marksmen comprising of Gurmeet, Gurpreet Singh and Pemba Tamang were not far behind with a score of 1711 to grab the second place on the podium.

Asian shooting championship (Team) bronze medallist Akshay Ashtaputre couldn't work his magic here as his teammates Shivraj Sase and Vikrant Ghaisas scored a cumulative 1700 for Maharashtra to settle for the bronze.

In the 25 metre Rapid Fire Pistol junior category, Adarsh Singh who bagged a gold in the team event defeated Gun for Glory shooter Harshawardhan Yadav by a narrow margin of just one point to clinch his second gold in the prestigious tournament.

Harshawardhan had glory in his sight but couldn't capitalise on the moment as he scored 21 points to Adarsh's 22.

Languishing behind with 17 points, Mandeep Singh took the third spot on the podium.

Earlier, in the qualification round of the 10m Air Rifle category, 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist Gagan Narang topped the charts with a score of 626.5. The finals are scheduled for Thursday.

--IANS

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