Mixed Luck For Vidarbha Shooters In Nationals

Nagpur: Amravati's Krishan Shelke and Prerna More from Chandrapur made their presence felt in the 68th National Shooting Championships, held in various categories in New Delhi and Bhopal recently.While a handful of Vidarbha and Nagpur shooters participated in the national championship in the air rifle, pistol, shotgun and firearm events, they missed the podium finish by a whisker.The shooters enrolled with the Nagpur District Rifle Association (NDRA) participated in almost every event of the nationals. Be it 50m men's rifle, shotgun events of trap shooting, double trap, and the 25m pistol competition, the Vidarbha shooters were seen in action in almost all the competitive events.Earlier, the shooters from Nagpur and nearby districts used to participate in the air rifle and pistol events, but NDRA's consistent efforts, coupled with expert guidance, ensured youngsters got the chance to take part in the firearm events.Though not a single Nagpur shooter succeeded in winning medals, Amravati's Krishna Shelke—trained under the guidance of NDRA coaches—played a pivotal role in helping Maharashtra clinch team gold in the 50m men's rifle event. The three-member title-winning Maharashtra team included Krishna, Vedant Waghmare and Gaurav Desale. While Vedant garnered 623 points, Krishna gave his personal best of 617.2 and Gaurav fired 615.6 for the 50m rifle prone junior gold medal.Chandrapur's Prerna shot an impressive 632.50 in the 10m air rifle women's event to enter the final round of the top eight shooters. She missed the podium finish by a whisker, informed NDRA Secretary Chandrakant Deshmukh.The other Nagpur shooters who participated in various events of the national junior and senior championships included Ayush Deshmukh, Aryan Rajurkar, Abhijeet Deshmukh, Devank Chaturvedi, Samiksha Narsinghkar, Ananya Naidu, Aarohi Kutamate, Pooja Yadav, Ananya Naidu, Naina Chaudhari, Kaiwalya Lande, Krushna Mohod, Vedhiraj Rathod, Soham Bagde, Pratham Dadmal, Sumit Janbandhu, Davashish Barewan, Adnan Ali, Nakul Tanwar, Prerna Yadav and Reenu Sachdwa.