Lajja grabs first spot at shooting national selection trials

Shooter Lajja Goswami, a 2013 world cup silver medallist, has bagged the top spot in 50m rifle three position at the fifth national selection trials here today.

It all came down to the last shot as Lajja kept her composure to shoot 10.3 and bagged the first spot in an anxious encounter here at the 18th Kumar Surendra Singh Shooting Memorial Championship.

Another shooter from Gujarat, Hema K.C, was breathing down Lajja's neck and stayed on path to annexing the first spot but Lajja kept it till the last shot and broke Hema's heart by scoring 453.4. Jammu and Kashmir's Shreya Saksena scored 442.7 to claim third spot.

In the men's event, Air Force's Parul Kumar scored 455.1 to seize the first spot, Commonwealth Championship bronze medallist Swapnil Suresh Kusale (453.4) was placed second, while Olympian Chain Singh took the third spot with a score of 440.5 at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range here.

In the 10M Pistol event for men, Abhishek Verma of Haryana left the stalwarts of Indian shooting behind as he scored 244 in the final round to top the charts.

2010 Commonwealth Games silver medalist Deepak Sharma representing Air India, finished with 239.8 and was second while Arjuna Awardee Jitu Rai settled for the third spot with 218.2.