Sushil Ghaley won the gold by scoring 249.6 and also setting a new national record.
Army marksman Sushil Ghaley upset a field comprising Commonwealth medalists Gagan Narang of Air India and Swapnil Kusale of Railways to win the gold medal with a new national record score of 249.6 in the men’s 50m rifle prone event at the 61st National Shooting Championship here at National Games Shooting Range here on Thursday.
Reigning record holder Gagan with a score of 246.6 took silver while bettering own record of 246.3 set in Brisbane Commonwealth shooting championship held in November. Chain Singh with a score of 225.4 took the bronze medal.
Gagan had won silver for India while Swapnil who won a bronze in Brisbane finished fourth here.
While Kerala’s Ron George Valiyaveettil, 19, impressed all with a score of 183.3 was fifth ahead of the likes of Army’s Arun Sharma, Hari Om Singh and Uttar Pradesh’s Akhil Sheoran.
After 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Gagan is competing in only his third major after Brisbane and Asian championship in Wako City in Japan last fortnight.
Sushil qualified for the finals with a score of 624.6 and was third behind Akhil (625.2, Chain (625.1) in a strong field of 318 shooters including 2006 Melbourne CWG bronze medallist Sanjeev Rajput (Haryana, 618.3,9th), Jaydeep Karmarker (Railways, 6134.3, 28th), Ravi Kumar (Air Force, 610.5, 48th). Sidhartha Babu B K, a para shooter, of Kerala with a score of 617.8 finished creditable 11th in the qualification.
Ron helped hosts Kerala win a silver medal in the junior team event with a total score of 1822.4. Ron posted 619.1 while his teammates Sreechirag Mukundan and Matholy Sudharsan Adharsh added 605.2 and 598.1.
Final result MEN 50m rifle prone: Sushil Ghaley (Army) 874.2 (624.6+249.6); Gagan Narang (AI) 866.3 (619.7+246.6); Chain Singh (Army) 850.5 (625.1+225.4)
Proud of you Sushil Ghaley! May you bring more laurels to our country and our Gorkha Community in upcoming International events 🙂