BHOPAL:India internationals Parul Kumar of the Indian Air Force and Akhil Sheoran representing the Railways, won the men's 10m Air Rifle T5 and T6 national shooting trials respectively, at the MP State Shooting Academy ranges, here on Friday.
However, the highlight of the day was a double in the men's junior 10m Air Rifle by Punjab's Pankaj Mukheja, who won both the T5 and T6 trials.
While Parul got the better of Akash Patidar of the CISF in the T5 gold medal match with the scoreline reading 16-8 in his favour, Akhil was more dominant in the T6 decider, beating local favourite Goldi Gujjar 16-2.
Pankaj, on other hand, beat Himachal Pradesh's Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu 17-5 in the T5 final. He then got the better of Khelo India gold medallist Sartaj Singh Tiwana 16-10 in the T6 final to do an encore.
As far as qualifications were concerned, Akash topped the T5 qualifiers with a score of 580, while Pankaj, who was in great form on the day, shot 590 out of 600 to top the men's T6 qualification. Akhil finished 6th in it with a score of 584 before topping the semis with 401.2 to make the final.
Parul had also finished fourth in his qualifiers with 580 but then beat Akash in the eight-man semis with a score of 403.2 to Akash's 403.1, to set up a gold medal shoot-out between the two.
Pankaj beat statemate Sartaj Singh Tiwana 16-10 in the T6 final and Himachal's Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu 17-5 in the T5 final.