ISSF World Cup: India sign off with double gold in trap team competitions
Mar 28, 2021
New Delhi [India], March 28 : Hosts India signed off from the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun here at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting range in style on Sunday, winning double gold in the Trap Men's and Women's Team competitions respectively.
That effort meant that India has now had their most successful ever ISSF World Cup stage, not only finishing on top of the medal tally but also amassing a whopping 15 gold, nine silver and six bronze medals for a tournament tally of 30 medals.
The Women's Trap Team comprising Shreyasi Singh, Manisha Keer and Rajeshwari Kumari, brought India's first gold of the day when they beat Kazakhstan in the final by a margin of 6-0.
They won the first 5-shot each series 12-11, the second 11-18 and the third by a margin of 12-9 to completely outplay the Kazakhs.
Two points are awarded for winning each 15-shot series, while the team split points if the scores are tied. The first team to reach six or more points wins.
It was the turn of the Men's Trap trio of Kynan Chenai, Prithviraj Tondaiman and Lakshay Sheoran next, as they beat Slovakia 6-4 in a much more tightly contested final.
The Slovaks won the first series 13-12 but India hit right back to level at 2-2 after winning the second series 13-12 themselves. The Slovaks however took the lead again by winning the third 13-11. The determined Indian trio hit right back again by winning the fourth 14-11 with both Prithviraj and Lakshay hitting all five targets.
In the fifth and final series, India won 13-11 to take the match at 6-4.
India also won a silver in the first final scheduled on the final day, the Men's 25M Rapid Fire Pistol Men's Team competition. India's Gurpreet Singh, Vijayveer Sidhu and Adarsh Singh went down to the USA 2-10 in the final. There were only two series of five Rapid Fire shots where the Indians were able to split points. This was the USA's fourth gold of the tournament, and they finished outright second with four gold, three silver and one bronze medal for a total of eight medals.
A total of 22 countries won medals over 10 competition days. As many as 294 shooters representing 53 countries took part in the tournament, which was the first International Olympic sporting event to have taken place in the country post the coronavirus-induced lockdowns last year.
