Oly medalist Vijay Kumar wins bronze, team gold on the 1st day of KSS shooting

On a comeback trial, Olympic silver medallist Vijay Kumar won a bronze medal in his pet 25m rapid fire pistol event, besides accounting for a gold in the team event on the first day of the the 18th KSS Memorial Shooting Championship here today.

While Vijay won the bronze, Arpit Goel of Delhi displayed his class to run away with the top honours in the 25m rapid fire pistol senior men's category.

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 shot 24 points to finish third.

In the team event, Vijay 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 score of 1723 to annex the gold.

The Army Markman Unit, comprising Gurmeet, Gurpreet Singh and Pemba Tamang, were not far behind with a score of 1711 to grab the second place. Asian Shooting Championship (Team) bronze medalist 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 25m 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 capitalize on the moment as he scored 21 points to Adarsh's 22. Languishing behind with 17 points, Mandeep Singh took the third spot.