The Hindu : Sport / Shooting : Sonia pips Shweta

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Sonia pips Shweta

NEW DELHI: Sonia Rai pipped Shweta Chaudhary for the third spot in the women's air pistol squad for the Asian Games, following two trials in the ongoing training camp for the shooters in Pune, on Thursday.

After deciding on the selection for both the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games on September 1, the selectors had agreed to give another chance for Sonia Rai who had asked the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) for an exception to appear for the trials then, on health grounds. She had requested that her average till then be considered for selection.

Sonia had enjoyed a 0.25 point lead over Shweta Chaudhary, who did not have to shoot the trials as her World Championship score was taken into account.

In the trials, exclusively conducted for the two, Sonia shot scores of 375 and 378, whereas Shweta had rounds of 370 and 381.

There was a bit of confusion, as it was argued that it was against the rules that Shweta had been allowed to continue with two rounds of the first trial on the second day, after she had reported malfunction of the pistol. She had shot 194 out of 200 at the half way mark.

Shweta did complete two cards on Thursday, and followed that with an impressive 381 in the second trials later in the day, but still fell marginally short of Sonia, the first Indian pistol shooter ever, male or female, to win a World Cup medal.

Sonia who was part of the medal winning combination in the last Asian Games in Doha, along with Shweta and Harveen Srao, joined Heena Sidhu and Annuraj Singh in air pistol for the Asian Games to be held in Guangzhou in November.

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