Pune: Harpreet Singh beat experienced Vijay Kumar by one point for the gold in the 25m rapid fire pistol shootout in the National shooting championships here on Thursday.
He won 28-27 against his Army rival who had clinched a London Olympics quota place for India in the same event at the World Cup in Fort Benning, USA. Harpreet and Vijay, partners for India at international events, were left shooting for gold after a six-player field was reduced to the two finalists on the basis of eliminator rule.
The winner grabbed four points out in five shots at target within a time frame, the runner-up managed three out of five. The 25m rapid fire pistol rules have been tweaked by the world body, ISSF, to make the event exciting for the fans.
Six qualifiers for the final fire shots at five targets placed horizontally, with 9.7 being the cut-off point for each participant.
The rule is named ‘hit or miss' and any shot below 9.7 is called a ‘miss', shots rated 9.7 and above displayed on the electronic scoreboard are taken into consideration.
Final result: 25m Rapid Fire: 1. Harpreet Singh (Navy) (28 final score, 568 qualifying score); 2. Vijay Kumar (Army) (27, 577); 3. Gurpeet Singh (Army) (23, 572); 4. Pemba Tamang (Army) (19, 576); 5. Rahul Panwar (Navy) (15, 575); 6. C.K. Chowdhury (Army) (9, 580) .
The Hindu