Niraj claims Men's 3P gold at 20th Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting

New Delhi, June 12 (IANS) As the first finals of the 20th Kumar Surendra Singh Memorial Shooting competition concluded at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range on Sunday, the Indian Navy's Niraj claimed the Men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions (3P) gold ahead of Punjab's Sartaj Singh Tiwana, winning the final encounter between the two with a 17-9 margin.

The Punjab youngster however won the Junior event to round off a profitable day.

Shooting on competition day two at the DKSSR, Niraj was dominant in the Men's 3P match throughout. He topped the first qualification round with a score of 585/600 and then the eight-man ranking round with an effort of 403.8 to make the gold medal match. Tiwana who came second to make it to the final, was way behind in the ranking round with a score of 400.4. The Navy picked up a second medal in the event with Kiran Ankush Jadhav winning bronze with a 399.8 in the ranking round.

In the Junior Men's 3P, it was Delhi's Shivam Dabas who topped the first qualification round with a score of 581. Himachal's Surya Pratap Singh finished second with 580 while Sartaj qualified third with a subdued 578.

In the ranking round however, Surya Pratap finished on top of the eight-man field with a 402.0 as Sartaj setup his second gold medal match of the day, finishing second with 400.7. Dabas settled for bronze with a 398.1.

The final of the Junior Men's 3P was a much tighter affair though with Sartaj finally prevailing 17-15 in what eventually turned out to be a thriller.

Team medals for Men's 3P were also won with Indian Navy, Madhya Pradesh and the Indian Air Force finishing first, second and third respectively.