Army Marksmanship Unit's Sushil Ghaley beat Olympic bronze medallist Gagan Narang to clinch the men's 50m Rifle Prone gold at the 61st National Shooting Championship Competitions in Thiruvananthapuram on Thursday.
Ghaley won the gold in a new national finals record score of 249.6. Narang bagged the silver with a score of 246.6 while Rio Olympian Chain Singh won the bronze, logging 225.4.
Earlier, Ghaley had come third in the 318 strong qualification field with a score 624.6 to make it to the eight-man final.
Young Akhil Sheoran of Uttar Pradesh topped the field, shooting 625.2 while Narang, representing Air India, shot 619.7 to qualify in sixth place.
Ghaley also won the team gold along with Chain and Surendra Singh Rathod, combining for a total of 1866.9. Uttar Pradesh (1849.8) and Air Force (1845.6) teams won the silver and bronze respectively.
Niraj Kumar of Punjab won the junior men's prone event, also with a new finals national record score of 245.4.
Niraj finished ahead of Gujarat's Pruthviraj Ayachi, who shot 243.1 in the finals while Punjab's Fateh Singh Dhillon shot 222.6 to claim the bronze medal.
A total of 4800 men and women shooters from across the country are participating in the 61st NSCC, including 200 wild card entries.
