Parul, Akhil win Air Rifle trials; Pankaj lands junior Men's double

India internationals Parul Kumar of the Indian Air Force and Akhil Sheoran representing the Railways, won the Men's 10m Air Rifle T5 and T6 national trials respectively here at the MP State Shooting Academy ranges in Bhopal where they are currently on.

The highlight of the day however was a double in the Men's Junior 10M Air Rifle by Punjab's Pankaj Mukheja who won both the T5 and T6 trials.

While Parul got the better of Akash Patidar of the CISF in the T5 gold medal match with the score line reading 16-8 in his favour, Akhil was more dominant in the T6 decider, beating local favourite Goldi Gujjar 16-2.

As far as qualifications were concerned Akash topped the T5 qualifiers with a score of 580, while Pankaj, who was in great form on the day, shot 590 out of 600 to top the Men's T6 qualification. Akhil finished sixth in it with a score of 584 before topping the semis with 401.2 to make the final.

Parul had also finished fourth in his qualifiers with 580 but then beat Akash in the eight-man semis with a score of 403.2 to Akash's 403.1, to set up a gold medal shoot-out between the two.

Pankaj beats statemate Sartaj Singh Tiwana 16-10 in the T6 final and Himachal's Surya Pratap Singh Banshtu 17-5 in the T5 final.