It was a brilliant climax for the host, as the men’s and women’s teams nailed the elusive trap gold in the shooting World Cup that concluded at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Sunday.
Even though the team’s spearhead Kynan Chenai was not at his best in the single-barrel competition, the Indian team pulled together remarkably well to beat the tricky Slovakian team 6-4.
Michal Slamka, Adrian Drobny and Filip Marinov had helped Slovakia top the qualification four points ahead of the host, but India had the last laugh.
When one point was required with three shots to go for India, Kynan missed. But Prithviraj smashed the clay to celebrate with a clenched fist. Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Shoran put the icing on the cake by hitting the last target and triggering a celebration.
The Indian women’s team of Shreyasi Singh, Manisha Keer and Rajeshwari Kumari had it relatively easy, as it outclassed Kazakhstn 6-0.
The Indian team had to earlier endure the ignominy of being beaten to the gold in the men’s rapid fire pistol team competition by USA.
Keith Sanderson, Jack Hobson and Henry Turner were quite sharp as USA beat India 10-2.
Olympian Gurpreet Singh struggled to find his rhythm, but Vijayveer Sidhu and Adarsh Singh tried to make a fight of it, albeit in patches.
India topped the medals table with 15 gold, nine silver and six bronze. USA followed a distant second with four gold, three silver and a bronze.
Italy and Denmark had two golds each, while Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Iran, Estonia, Britain and Slovenia won at least one gold. The 82 medals, with 30 gold and 30 silver were shared by 22 of the 59 countries.
The results: Men: 25m rapid fire pistol team: 1. USA (Keith Sanderson, Jack Hobson, Henry Turner) 10 (571) 868; 2. India (Gurpreet Singh, Vijayveer Sidhu, Adarsh Singh) 2 (552) 857.
Trap: 1. India (Kynan Chenai, Prithviraj Tondaiman, Lakshay Sheoran) 6 (494); 2. Slovakia (Michal Slamka, Adrian Drobny, Filip Marinov) 4 (498); 3. Kazakhstan (Viktor Khassyanov, Maxim Kolomoyets, Andrey Mogilevskiy) 6 (489); 4. Qatar (Saeed Abusharb, Nasser Ali Al Hemadi, Mohammed Al Rumaihi) 4 (466).
Women: Trap: 1. India (Shreyasi Singh, Manisha Keer, Rajeshwari Kumari) 6 (321); 2. Kazakhstan (Mariya Dmitriyenko, Aizhan Dosmagambetova, Sarsenkul Rysbekova) 0 (308).
