Maharashtra’s Parth grabbed the 10m air rifle event.
| Photo Credit: RITU RAJ KONWAR
He is just 17 and the National Games shooting’s men’s 10m air rifle final field had some big names, including World No. 4 Arjun Babuta who narrowly missed a bronze at the last Olympics, another Paris Olympian Sandeep Singh and 2022 World champion Rudrankksh Patil.
But Maharashtra’s Parth Mane did not feel a shiver, in fact he appeared to thrive under pressure.
Despite being a junior, Parth has seen and beaten bigger names. He had shocked Sweden’s World champion Victor Lindgren, the Paris Olympics silver medallist, while winning the Junior World Championship gold in Lima, Peru, last October.
“Pressure helps me, it helps me focus on the target. The Junior World gold definitely gave me confidence, it helped me here also,” said Parth after winning the gold here on Friday.
“Before that, I was a bit low on confidence in finals but that World gold changed me.”
Parth, who is coached by Olympian Suma Shirur at her Lakshya Shooting Academy in Panvel, was a steady shooter in the air rifle final.
He led the pack after the first set of five shots and then after 10 and 12 in the 24-shot final. Services’ Kiran Jadhav briefly took the lead after 14 shots but Parth was quick to regain it after the next two shots. The two big names, Rudrankksh and Arjun, occupied the next spots behind Parth after 18 shots while Sandeep made his exit at that point.
Arjun left after 20 shots to finish fourth while Parth grew in strength to grab the gold (252.6 points) with his Maharashtra teammate Rudrankksh (252.1) and Kiran (230.7) taking silver and bronze.
Published – January 31, 2025 05:16 pm IST
