Shahzar Rizvi clinches gold in men's 10m Air Pistol at 61st National Shooting Championship

Meerut based shooter Shahzar Rizvi rounded off a brilliant year by winning the men's 10m air pistol gold at the 61st National Shooting Championship, which concluded in Thrivantapuram on Sunday  .

Representing the Air Force, Shahzar won with a new finals national record score of 241.7, leaving the Army's Yashwant Singh in silver medal position with 237.7. Yashwant's teammate Omprakash Mitherwal won bronze, shooting 218.0 in the finals.

Earlier this year, Shahzar won gold at the Commonwealth Shooting Championships and team gold at the 10th Asian Airgun Championship in Japan as well.

In the Nationals, he beat a 568 strong field, including the likes of Jitu Rai, who finished sixth in the final. Jitu, however, won the team event for his third gold of the tournament. His teammates were Mitherwal and Dharmendra Singh.

In the junior men's 10m pistol, Anmol Jain of Haryana won gold in a new finals national record score of 244.1. Saurabh Choudhary of Uttar Pradesh and Pankaj Yadav of BSF won silver and bronze respectively with scores of 238.8 and 218.6 respectively. The junior event also had a field of 314 entries.