Tejaswani beat world record holder Rhythm Sangwan 38-37 to top women’s 25-metre sports pistol event in the National shooting selection trials at the Madhya Pradesh Academy on Sunday (September 21, 2025).
Tejaswani had a two-point lead over Rhythm before the last series, five shots in the final. Rhythm (588), the qualification topper, could only narrow the gap with four hits, while Tejaswani had three.
Multiple World Cup gold medalist and Asian Games champion Rahit Sarnobat placed third ahead of Chinki Yadav, Anuja Verma, Vibhuti Bhatia, Pushpanjali Rana and Anjali Choudhary.
Simranpreet Kaur Brar shot 576 and missed the final by one point.
In men’s 50-metre rifle 3-position event, Niraj Kumar pipped Olympian Chain Singh in the shoot-off after the two tied on 462.0 in the 45-shot final. Qualification topper Swapnil Kusale, the Olympic medalist in Paris, was pushed to the fourth spot by Akhil Sheoran.
Nishan Budha, Sidharth Gaur, Kiran Jadhav and Goldi Gurjar were the others to make the final.
In women’s air rifle, Asian champion Elavenil Valarivan beat Sakshi Padekar by 0.5 point as she wound up with hits of 10.9 and 10.6 in the 24-shot final.
Sonam Maskar placed third ahead of Rajshree Sancheti, Meghana Sajjanar, Shreya Agrawal,Vidarsa Vinod and Arya Borse.
Shreya topped qualification with an impressive 636.4.
The results
10m air rifle: Women: 1. Elavenil Valarivan 253.3 (633.0); 2. Sakshi Padekar 252.8 (634.0); 3. Sonam Maskar 230.1 (632.6).
25m sports pistol: Women: 1. Tejaswani 38 (582); 2. Rhythm Sangwan 37 (588); 3. Rahi Sarnobat 32 (584).
50m rifle 3-position: Men: 1. Niraj Kumar 462.0 (589); 2. Chain Singh 462.0 (586); 3. Akhil Sheoran 451.9 (586).
Published – September 22, 2025 05:40 am IST
