65th National Shooting Championship: Gautami Bhanot and Swapnil Kusale topped the qualification rounds respectively

Madhya Pradesh's Gautami Bhanot and Swapnil Kusale topped the women's 10m Air Rifle and men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) qualification rounds respectively at the 65th National Shooting Championship in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.

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Moreover, both the shooters are from Railways and both are among the top eight finalists heading into the ranking round to be held on Friday. Out of this, the top two shooters will fight each other for the gold medal. Jabalpur's Gautami scored 632.5 marks, just 0.5 marks short of the national record. While Swapnil scored 590 marks.

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At the same time, Bhakti Khamkar, Nancy, Shriyanka Sadangi, Elavenil Valarivan, R. Narmada, Aishwarya Murlidhar, and Yukthi Rajendra were the other seven to follow Gautami into the ranking round. In the men's 3P, Swapnil shot 590 to top the field over the Navy's Niraj Kumar, who shot 588. Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar, Ganga Singh, Akhil Sheoran, Chain Singh, Sanjeev Rajput, and Harshit Binjwa are the other finalists of the 65th National Shooting Championship.