61st national shooting championship: Bhaker, Ghosh emerge best shooters

New Delhi: Haryana emerged winners in the individual and team open categories as the 61st national shooting championship for rifle and pistol concluded at the National Games Shooting Range in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.

Kerala’s Manu Bhaker was named the best shooter in the pistol events with a total of 15 medals including 11 gold, three silver and a bronze medal while Mehuli Ghosh of West Bengal was the best rifle shooter with eight golds and three bronze medals.

Meanwhile in the open category, Haryana topped the medals tally with 10 gold, three silver and four bronze to finish far ahead of second-placed Punjab, who had four gold, three silver and four bronze medals.

In the team event, Haryana were equally dominant with 24 gold, 21 silvers and six bronze medals. Punjab had to be content with the second place again with 18 gold, 12 silver and 15 bronze medals. The Army Marksmanship Unit were third in the team category overall with 15 golds and three silvers.

Haryana won a total of 168 medals in the competition, Punjab had 127, Maharashtra 118 while hosts Kerala finished with a total of 29 medals to bag the maximum number of medals in totality.