National Shotgun championship: Manavaditya-Anushka pair wins trap mixed team gold

Manavaditya Singh Rathore won his third gold in two days at the ongoing Shotgun Nationals, partnering Anushka Singh Bhati to claim win the mixed team trap gold.

Manavaditya Singh Rathore and Anushka Singh Bhati of Rajasthan after taking gold in mixed trap event.

Manavaditya Singh Rathore combined brilliantly with Anushka Singh Bhati to trap the mixed gold for Rajasthan in the 63rd National shotgun championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Saturday.

The 20-year-old Manavaditya, who had won the junior men’s gold, after having missed the final of men’s trap in the shoot-off, continued to assert his class, as the Rajasthan pair won the gold 3-2 in the shoot-off, against the Madhya Pradesh team of Priyanshu Pandey and Manisha Keer.

The two teams had tied on 37 in the gold match, after having topped qualification with scores of 143 and 142 respectively.

Anushka had shot the best among the women in qualification with 71, and Manavjit had contributed 72. That equality of strength provided the edge to the team.

Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Sheoran guided Haryana to the bronze in partnership with Bhawna Chaudhary by winning the clash against Tamil Nadu’s Prithviraj Tondaiman and Nivetha Nenthirasigamani who had finished third in qualification.

After having started brilliantly in the morning with scores of 49 and 48, it was a disappointing finish for the Tamil Nadu team which missed the gold contest by one point.

Delhi and Punjab narrowly missed qualifying for the medal round. Manavjit Sandhu, the men’s champion, and Inaya Vijay Singh shot 137 for Punjab, while Delhi shot 138 through Fahd Sultan and Soumya Gupta.

World Cup silver medallist Seema Tomar was in fine form for Army with 71 out of 75, but Balbhadra Tarsia shot 64, as the team slipped to the seventh place.

Bhowneesh Mendriatta and Kiran outclassed Delhi’s Kirti Gupta and Kabir Sharma 47-40 for the junior gold, while Haryana pipped Punjab 36-35 for the bronze.

The results:

Mixed trap: 1. Rajasthan (Manavaditya Rathore, Anushka Bhati) 37(3) 143; 2. Madhya Pradesh (Priyanshu Pandey, Manisha Keer) 37(2) 142; 3. Haryana (Lakshay Sheoran, Bhawna Chaudhary) 47 (139); 4. Tamil Nadu (Prithviraj Tondaiman, Nivetha Nenthirasigamani) 44 (141).

Juniors: 1. Haryana (Bhowneesh Mendiratta, Kiran) 47 (140); 2. Delhi (Kirti Gupta, Kabir Sharma) 40 (139); 3. Rajasthan (Vivaan Kapoor, Harshita Chandrawat) 36 (130); 4. Punjab (Jungsher Virk, Hitasha) 35 (134).