Shooting: Arjun Babuta, Vivaan Kapoor win national crowns

NEW DELHI: Arjun Babuta in Men's 10m Air Rifle and Vivaan Kapoor in Men's Trap, were crowned national champions at the 65th National Shooting Championship Competitions (65th NSCC) which are currently being held in Delhi and Thiruvananthapuram.

Punjab's Arjun overcame Assam's Hriday Hazarika 16-8 in the gold medal match at the Vattiyoorkkavu Shooting Range in Thiruvananthapuram where the Rifle nationals are taking place, while Rajasthan's Vivaan, got the better of Tamil Nadu's Prithviraj Tondaiman shooting 31 birds to the latter's 27, in the medal match at Delhi's Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range (DKSSR), venue of the Shotgun nationals.

Arjun made the gold medal match after topping the top eight ranking round with a score of 263.4. Hriday was second with 262.9 to earn his place in the title clash.

In Men's Trap, Vivaan came second behind state-mate and Paris 2024 Olympics quota winner Bhowneesh Mendiratta in the second semi-final, shooting down 21 targets to the latter's 22. They were joined in the medal match by Prithivraj, who topped semi-final one with 23 hits and Bakhtyaruddin Malek, who was second with 21 hits.

Vivaan then edged out seasoned shooter Prithviraj in the 40-shot final even as Bhowneesh settled for bronze.

Olympian Divyansh Singh Panwar won the Junior Men's 10m Air Rifle, defeating Ranvir Katkar by a similar 16-8 margin. West Bengal's Abhinav Shaw won the Youth Men's Air Rifle with a nail-biting 16-14 victory over Katkar, who was denied gold a second time in the day.