Manavjit inches closer to finals, Jitu misses out

Indian shooter Manavjit Sandhu rallied to third place after the second day of qualification in the Men’s Trap Shooting event at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup being held at Rio di Janerio’s Olympic Shooting Centre.

Manavjit Sandhu shot a 24 to match second-placed Briton Edward Ling’s overall score of 72.

World Championship silver medallist and Asian Games champion Jitu Rai shot 580 and missed the final on the basis of lesser number of inner-10s, in men’s air pistol, in the shooting World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

It was a good outing for Jitu in the Olympic range, as he shot a series of 98, 97, 96, 96, 97 and 96, but had only 14x as two others qualified for the knock-out with the same score and 16x. One of them, Juraj Tuzinsky of Slovakia went on to bag the bronze medal behind Pablo Carrera of Spain and Damir Mikec of Serbia.

It was almost a similar pattern in women’s air rifle, as Pooja Ghatkar (417.2) missed the final by 0.3 point. Ayonika Paul (416.4) and Apurvi Chandela (415.7) who will be competing in the Olympics followed close by, in a strong field of 75 shooters.

Two-time Olympic and World champion Du Li of China beat Daria Vdovina of Russia by 0.3 point for the gold, while two other Chinese Yi Siling and Zhang Binbin apart from Najmeh Khedmati of Iran emphasised the Asian dominance by featuring in the final.

In women’s trap, World Cup silver medallist Seema Tomar shot a series of 20, 21, 19 to be placed 26th with a total of 60, in a field of 39 shooters. Yi Chun Lin of Chinese Taipei won the gold as she beat Ray Bassil of Lebanon 10-9 in the climax, after having qualified with a score of 68. The Taipei shooter beat Chen Fang of China 7-6 in the shoot-off to make it to the gold match after the two had tied on 12 in the semi-finals.

In men’s trap, former World Champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu slipped with a fourth round of 21, after having been among the top with 72 out of 75.

Results:

Men:

10m air pistol: 1. Pablo Carrera (Esp) 199.3 (583); 2. Damir Mikec (Srb) 198.9 (586); 3. Juraj Tuzinsky (Svk) 179.2 (580) 16x; 9. Jitu Rai 580 (14x); 17. Gurpreet Singh 577; 50. Prakash Nanjappa 569.

Women:

10m air rifle: 1. Du Li (Chn) 208.3 (418.6); 2. Daria Vdovina (Rus) 208.0 (420.1); 3. Selina Gschwandtner (Ger) 186.8 (418.6; 11. Pooja Ghatkar 417.2; 13. Ayonika Paul 416.4; 20. Apurvi Chandela 415.7. Trap: 1. Yi Chun Lin (Tpe) 10 (12)7 (68); 2. Ray Bassil (Lib) 9 (15) 67; 3. Sonja Scheibl (Ger) 11 (11) 69; 4. Chen Fang (Chn) 9 (12)6 (70); 26. Seema Tomar 60.