Riya Shirish wins first national title in women's 25m pistol

A young shooter from Aurangabad, Riya Shirish Tatte won her first senior national title of the 67th National Shooting Championship competition. She did a brilliant performance in the women's 25m pistol final held at Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

The seasoned Riya then defeated Simranpreet Kaur Brar of Punjab 7-2 in the shoot-off to win the gold medal as both shooters were tied on 31 hits in 8 series each of 5 shots. Olympian and former Asian Games champion Rahi Sarnobat finished third with 25 hits.

The silver by Simranpreet in the senior category capped a brilliant day that had begun with her junior women's title. She won 34 each - beating Haryana's Payal by 5-2 in the shoot-off - against the latter's 33 to seal the gold medal. Riya won the bronze with 30 hits.

Riya's father Shirish said, "She was in tears. There is no shooting range in Aurangabad. We used to travel 250 km to the Balewadi range in Pune, where Akshay Ashtaputre, who is also Swapnil Kusale's mentor, has been training her for the last five years. Riya wants to shoot for India and achieve glory." Apart from Simranpreet, the senior finals also included top former international shooters like Rahi, Heena Sidhu, and Annu Raj Singh.

Earlier, Simranpreet topped both the qualification stages with identical scores of 584. Riya qualified in second place in the junior category and managed to make it to the finals in the senior category, where she qualified in eighth and last place with a score of 576.