Haryana dominated the 61st National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) for Rifle/Pistol that drew to a close on Monday, and the state's young woman pistol shooter Manu Bhaker emerged as the best shooter in Pistol events, bagging a total of 15 medals including 11 Gold, three Silvers and one Bronze medal.
Mehuli Ghosh of West Bengal emerged as the best Rifle shooter winning eight Gold and 3 Bronze medals.
In the open category, Haryana won 10 Gold, three Silvers and four Bronze medals, leaving far behind runner up Punjab that won four Gold, three Silvers and four Bronze medals for a tally of 10 medals overall.
Haryana shined equally bright in the Team events, with 24 Gold, 21 Silvers and six Bronze medals. Punjab finished at the second place yet again with 18 Gold, 12 Silvers and 15 Bronze medals. The Army Marksmanship Unit came third in the Team category overall with 15 Gold and three Silver medals.
In the overall competition, Haryana won 168 medals, followed by Punjab with 127 medals, while Maharashtra bagged 118 medals. The hosts Kerala finished with a total of 29 medals.
Other notable performances came from Divansh Panwar ( four Gold, one Silver and four Bronze) of Rajasthan and Fateh Singh Dhillon ( two Gold, five Silvers and two Bronze) of Punjab in the Rifle events. In the Pistol events, Anish Bhanwala (10 Gold, three Silvers and two Bronze) of Haryana and state-mate Adarsh Singh (10 Gold, two Silvers, three Bronze) caught they eye with robust performances.
The event was held at the National Games Shooting Range in Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.
A total of 4998 shooters from across India, including 3388 men, 1520 women, 74 Para Men and 16 Para Women competed for a total of 778 medals awarded. Uttar Pradesh registered the highest number of entries with 735 competitors followed by Maharashtra with 697, Haryana with 610 and hosts Kerala had 113 shooters competing. These include entries in the junior, youth, senior and Para categories.