New Delhi, March 6 : Bhavesh Shekhawat took the early lead after Stage 1 in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event at the National Selection Trials T3, which got underway at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Ranges in the National Capital Region on Friday.

The shooter from Rajasthan compiled a total of 294 â?? 11x (99,99,96) in the three series of the first stage to take the lead.

Olympian Anish Bhanwala shot 291-11x (97,98,96) to take second place, while Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu also shot 291 (96,98,97) to place in third. National Champion Suraj Sharma followed with a score of 290-9x (98,95,97).

Ahead of a packed international and domestic calendar beginning next month, almost all of Indiaâ??s top guns are competing in 10 events of the National Selection Trials 3 (Group A), which include all eight Olympic events plus the rifle prone competitions for men and women.

Athletes will be aiming to secure scores to make their case for selection in the national squad for international competitions in the second half of the year.

Rifle/Pistol Selection Trials 3 and 4 for Group B athletes also commenced on Friday and will be conducted at the M.P. State Shooting Academy in Bhopal till March 22, 2026. Following the completion of the selection trials, the national squad athletes will commence their coaching camp in New Delhi from March 10 to 21, 2026.

The National Squad camp for shotgun athletes commenced in New Delhi on Thursday, with the skeet shooters reporting first. The Trap shooters will report for the national camp on the 8th of March, 2026. The national squad camp will be followed by the pre-event camp before the ISSF World Cup Shotgun, the first World Cup of the calendar year, which will be held in Tangier, Morocco, from March 21-April 3, 2026.

Indian teams for the first two Rifle/Pistol (Granada and Munich) and Shotgun (Tangier and Almaty) ISSF World Cup stages of the year have already been announced earlier.

Meanwhile, in the National Selection Trials T3, the 10m rifle athletes will be in action on Saturday, with the qualification and finals scheduled along with Stage 2 and the finals of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol event.

Other Results in T3 trials:

Ankur Goel - 289-12x (99,96,94)

Mukesh Nelavalli - 289-7x (99,93,97)

Vijayveer Sidhu - 289-6x (100,98,91)

Adarsh Singh - 289-4x (95,97,97)

Pradeep Singh - 286-9x (97,97,92)

Omkar Singh - 286-6x (98,100,88)

Udhayveer Sidhu - 284-7x (97,96,91)

Neeraj Kumar - 284-6x (98,98,88)

Mandeep Singh - 281-7x (96,96,89)

/IANS