Sawant completes golden campaign in National Games

Tapan Mohanta

Ranchi, Feb 18 (PTI) World champion shooter TejaswiniSawant clinched a fourth gold medal to conclude a brilliantcampaign at the 34th National Games here today.

Having already pocketed the individual and team gold in50m rifle prone, the Maharashtra shooter was not at her bestin the 50m rifle three positions, but the score of 672.6(577+95.6) was enough to earn her third gold medal.

Her state-mate and namesake Tejaswini Muley bagged thesilver shooting 668.1 (571+97.1), while Punjab bagged thebronze through Chetanpreet Nilon who totalled 667.4(570+97.4).

Veteran shooter Anjali Bhagwat was pushed to fourth buther score of 667.3 (572+95.3) was enough for Maharashtra toannexe the team title that meant Tejaswini won the gold medalsin all the four events she competed.

In previous Games (Guwahati, 2007), Tejaswini had asix-gold effort and the ace shooter clarified that she was nomore shooting air rifle, focusing on 50m prone and 3positions.

"I''m not that strong enough to fit in the Maharashtra airrifle team," she joked.

The Madhya Pradesh trio of Rajkumari Rathore (568),Shivangi Jhalani (567) and Pournima Zanane (556) won the teamsilver, while Haryana bagged the bronze through K C Hema(567), Anjum Moudgil (563) and Shikha Dhall (558).

Annu Raj Singh broke Sonia Rai''s four-year-old record enroute to the gold in the 25m women''s pistol.

The Haryana girl shot 579 in the qualifying to improvethe old record of 574, while in the final she totalled 781.8to shatter Sonia''s 775.3 that was achieved in the GuwahatiGames in 2007.

Maharashtra''s Rahi Jivan Sarnobat clinched the silverwith scores of 776.9 (574+202.9), while Anisa Sayyed,representing Haryana, settled for the bronze with a score of775.5 (573+202.5). .