Manu Bhaker, Anish Bhanwala clinch five gold medals at National Championships

BHOPAL: Commonwealth Games champions Manu Bhaker and Anish Bhanwala clinched gold medals at the 63rd National Shooting Championships in Bhopal yesterday. The 17-year-old Bhaker, representing Haryana, clinched four gold medals (individual and team events in senior and junior) in the women's 10 meter air pistol. She shot 243 to emerge triumphant in the eight-woman final. She then shot 588 to top qualifications and equal the record set by Annu Raj Singh in the South Asian Games.

Her state-mate Anish, also 17, won individual gold medal



in the senior men's 25 meter rapid fire pistol event to stamp his dominance. Bhanwala shot 28 in the rapid fire final to leave behind Bhavesh Shekhawat of Rajasthan who ended with 26 while Chandigarh's Vijayveer Sidhu came third with 22 hits.

Devanshi Dhama bagged the silver in the senior women's 10 meter air pistol event while Yashaswini Singh Deshwal won the bronze medal in the same event. Manu Bhaker and Yashaswini have already secured quotas for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.