Anish outshines Olympians to bag maiden national 25m rapid fire gold

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Anish Bhanwala, 15, outshone London Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar and Rio Olympics participant Gurpreet Singh to win gold in the men's 25m rapid fire at the 61st National Shooting Championship at the National Games Shooting Range on Sunday.
In the final, the teenager from Karnal in Haryana shot 31 to claim his maiden senior gold beating a field of stalwarts that included Army's Pemba Tamang, Rajesh Kumar, Wazeer Singh Rathee of BSF, Harpreet Singh other than national record holder Gurpreet and Vijay.
Rajesh (24) and Pemba (20) took the silver and bronze respectively. Haryana's Harpreet (17) who motivated Anish to rapid fire was fourth, while Gurpreet (12) was fifth.
Anish is a junior national camper trains under national coach Jaspal Rana at Dr Karni Singh shooting range in New Delhi. He shot consistently firing series of 5 shots thrice, and series of four shots and three shots twice in the 40-shot final.
"I'm both happy and humble to have won this maiden national gold medal in the senior level but for the past one season I have been shooting consistently well and improving in every outing," a 10th standard student of St Theresa's Convent school in Karnal, Haryana, said after his final.
With 583, Anish led right from the beginning in the qualification, while Wazeer (575), Rajesh (575), Gurpreet (574), Pemba (573), and Harpreet (573) booked the final six places from 80 shooters. Vijay finished 17th with a score of 558 in the qualification.
In the junior category, Anish, a 10th standard student of St Theresa's Convent school in Karnal, with 30 set a new national record and picked the gold too. His teammate Adarsh Singh (25) and Anhad Jawanda (16) of Punjab took bronze. The old record of 25 was set by Rushiraj Atul Barot in 2016 Gabala junior world cup. In junior level, he holds a world record with a score of 579 in rapid pistol and have won five gold medals in World Cup held in Suhl, Germany.
"I was expecting a good show from Anish. He has potential and an Olympic medal prospect, no doubt but needs to be more focused. I hope both his family and federation (national rifle association of India) will take steps to protect him and keep him grounded. I have seen several juniors like him but vanish from shooting range after some time," his coach Jaspal told TOI from New Delhi on Sunday.
His elder sister Muskan, 16 and a 11th standard student, is also competing here in women's air pistol from next week.