Kiran Jadhav wins air rifle gold in Lakshya Cup

Kiran Jadhav of Navy outclassed fancied names in the fray to bag the 10m air-rifle gold in the 15th Lakshya Cup invitational tournament here.

The 29-year-old Jadhav totalled 251.7 points to emerge victorious for the first time after consistently making the final every year since 2018.

Jadhav pipped Gajanan Khandagale of Maharashtra, who tallied 250.9, to the second place while Mohit Gowda, also of Maharashtra, finished third with 229.3 points.

Paris Olympics finalist Arjun Babuta of Railways was the favourite to win the title here but he ended up at fourth with 208.2 points.

However, reigning men's and women's national air rifle champions, Shahu Mane and Ananya Naidu, failed to qualify for the finals.

Mane of Railways shot 629.0 and 626.4 points, respectively in the qualification rounds.

With the top eight shooters entering the title round, the eighth qualifier was Gowda with 630.5 points.

Among the Olympians who did not make it to the finals were Divyansh Singh Panwar of Rajasthan (629.0) and Sandeep Singh of Army Marksmanship Unit (623.3).