Teenager Anish Bhanwala, who won a silver in the Commonwealth shooting championships last month, capped an impressive year with his first senior national win clinching the men's 25M rapid fire pistol gold at the ongoing 61st National Shooting Championship Competitions (61st NSCC) on Sunday.
In Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala's National Games Shooting Range, Anish, who hails from Haryana, put up a convincing performance to win the junior and junior team event golds in the same discipline.
In the Men's final, Anish shot 31 to get the better of Army's Rajesh Kumar, who won Silver with a final score of 24. The experienced Pemba Tamang of the Army won Bronze shooting the score of 20. The six-men final also had Rio Olympian Gurpreet Singh who finished fifth and Harpreet Singh who ended fourth.
In the junior men's final, Anish shot 30 to leave behind Haryana teammate Adarsh Singh, who shot 25, to rest for silver. Punjab's Anhad Jawanda won Bronze as he was eliminated on a score of 16.
A total of 4800 men and women shooters from across the country are participating in the 61st NSCC including 200 wild card entries.