Kiran Jadhav wins men's 50m rifle 3P national crown, Olympic bronze winner Kusale third

BHOPAL: Indian Navy's Kiran Ankush Jadhav beat Paris Olympic bronze medallist Swapnil Kusale and another Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar to clinch the men's 50m rifle 3 positions (3P) title at the 67th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) here on Wednesday.

Jadhav shot 465.8 in the final to leave Aishwary Pratap (463.1) of the home state in second place at the M.P. State Academy Shooting range.

Swapnil of Railways led the 45-shot final till the 40th shot but bowed out in third ahead of the final gold-deciding shot, with a tally of 451.8.

Earlier, Swapnil had topped the qualification with a world-class score of 593, leaving Aishwary a point behind in second. Jadhav had qualified fourth with a solid 590.

After leading at every stage of the final, Swapnil could not hit the 10-ring after his 40th shot. His last four shots in the final Standing position read 9.2, 9.4, 8.9 and 9.5, putting paid to his title hopes.

Jadhav was in third place till the 40-shot stage, before finishing with a series of 10.6, 10.4, 10.6, 10.0 and 10.8 to strike gold.

Home favourite Aishwary's 41st shot for a 9.9 meant he could not take advantage of Swapnil's slip, holding on to second.

In the junior final, West Bengal's Adriyan Karmakar, son of Olympian Jaideep Karmakar, triumphed over Madhya Pradesh's Kushagra Singh Rajawat comfortably with a score of 462.0, a full four points ahead of the local boy.

Rajasthan's Deependra Singh Shekhawat was third with a score of 445.6.

Adriyan had qualified third for the final with a score of 586 while Haryana's Rohit Kanyan, who made both the finals, was on top of the qualification pile with a score of 587.