Manu, Anish win 25m pistol trials

Pistol ace Manu Bhaker lived up to her reputation with a world-beating score as she eased to victory in the 25m pistol final while in-form Anish Bhanwala too notched up a regulation win in men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol in the Olympic Selection Trial T1 (OST T1) at the Karni Singh Shooting Range here on Saturday.

Overnight third in the five-woman field behind Esha Singh and Simranpreet Kaur Brar -- the trials are being conducted in the Paris Olympics format where qualification and final will happen on successive days -- Manu rose to the top in the final with consistently world-class shooting, registering 47 out of a possible 50 hits. She shot seven perfect series, each of five shots, and missed a shot each on the first, second and seventh series.

Her score in the final was above the current world record of 41 held by Yang Jin of Korea. Even though the record will not be ratified, the result will give enough confidence to the 22-year-old going into the second trials (T2) that will commence on Sunday. Rhythm Sangwan (39 points) was second followed by Abhidnya Patil (32). The fourth spot was taken by Brar (27) with Esha finishing last (23).

"I was not thinking about the overnight leaders. In finals, it doesn't matter if you are a world champion. I have stopped looking at my rankings too because all that matter is how you shoot in the final," she said.

Having rejoined forces with her personal coach Jaspal Rana, Manu credited the multiple Asian Games medallist and Dronacharya awardee pistol exponent for rekindling her love for shooting. "Last year, I was on the brink of quitting the sport. It had started to feel like a 9 to 5 job but Jaspal sir made some changes to my routines, gave me the confidence that I am good enough, and made me fall in love with the sport again," she said.

In men’s Rapid Fire Pistol, Anish, placed third after the qualification round, won T1 with 33 points followed by Vijayveer Sidhu (27) and Adarsh Singh (23). Overnight leader Bhavesh Shekhawat was fourth (18) while Ankur Goel (10) finished last.

"We have been working on minute technical adjustments over the past year and slowly the results are beginning to show. He has always been a mentally strong shooter. He just needs to get a little more technically sound to become a world beater," Anish's coach Gurpreet Singh said.