Niraj shoots to glory in males’s rifle 50m 3-position

Providers’ Niraj Kumar is all smiles after his outstanding win within the 50m Rifle 3-Place on the thirty eighth Nationwide Video games in Dehradun on Thursday, February 6, 2025.
| Picture Credit score: RITU RAJ KONWAR

Haryana’s Suruchi Phogat and Parmod received the 10m Air Pistol combined group gold within the thirty eighth Nationwide Video games at Trishul Capturing Vary in Dehradun on Thursday, 06 February 2025.
| Picture Credit score:
RITU RAJ KONWAR

With Olympic bronze medallist Swapnil Kusale and one other Paris Olympian Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar beside him, Niraj Kumar ought to have felt a shiver as he lined up for the lads’s rifle 50m 3-position closing within the 38^th Nationwide Video games’ capturing competitors right here on Thursday. However that was not the scenario.

“I used to be simply appearing like a robotic, simply following my course of and gave my greatest in each shot,” the 25-year-old Niraj instructed The Hindu after stunning the Olympians to win the gold.

“There was nothing in my thoughts as a result of each athlete within the closing is of the identical degree, whoever has higher management over his thoughts will win the title.”

Niraj, from Hoshiarpur in Punjab and representing Providers right here as he’s with the Indian Navy, was calm and picked up as he led virtually all by the kneeling, susceptible and standing occasions to take the gold beating Madhya Pradesh’s Aishwary Pratap 464.1-462.4. Aishwary took the silver whereas Swapnil (447.7) completed with a bronze.

“My preparation was not up to speed, I used to be busy with different issues…that’s the reason I used to be a bit apprehensive,” stated the Olympic bronze medallist Swapnil after the occasion.

In the meantime Haryana’s Suruchi Phogat, who completed with an empty bag on the final Video games in Goa in 2023, paired up with Parmod and received the 10m air pistol combined group gold brushing apart Rajasthan’s Anjali Shekhawat and Umesh Choudhary 17-7 within the title conflict. That introduced the 18-year-old her second gold right here and noticed her emerge because the capturing star of those Nationwide Video games.

“Really, I used to be not in kind as we speak. I assumed my first gold got here simpler,” stated Suruchi.

Maharashtra’s Arvind Patil and Olympian Rahi Sarnobat crushed host Uttarakhand’s Abhinav Deshwal and Yashsavi Joshi 17-3 for the bronze.