Prithviraj Tondaiman bags bronze medal at ISSF Shotgun World Cup Lonato 2023

Lonato [Italy], July 17 : India shooter Prithviraj Tondaiman bagged a bronze medal in the men’s trap event at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup Lonato 2023 on Sunday. 
Prithviraj Tondaiman’s bronze was India’s only medal at the Lonato shooting meet. This medal also marked his second individual ISSF World Cup medal, having won a bronze in Doha earlier in March. 
A total of six shooters qualified for the men’s trap final. Tondaiman finished third in the final with 34 points. Britain shooter Nathan Hales won the gold medal with 49 points while Qi Ying of the Republic of China clinched the silver medal with 48 points. 
Earlier, Prithviraj Tondaiman finished third in the qualifying round with 122 points. The 36-year-old shooter scored 23, 25, 24, 25, 25 in the five-round qualification series. 
Paris 2024 Olympics quota winners Bhowneesh Mendiratta and Zoravar Singh Sandhu failed to progress beyond the qualification stage in the men’s trap event. 
Mendiratta finished 16th with 120 points while Sandhu was 66th with 115 points. While Indian shooters, Lakshjeet Singh Sindhu and Lakshay were shooting for ranking points. 
Meanwhile, in the women’s trap event, none of the Indian shooters managed to go past the qualification round. 
Commonwealth Games 2018 champion, Shreyasi Singh, finished 36th with 111 points while Manisha Keer (111 points) and Rajeshwari Kumari (106) finished in 39th and 58th positions respectively. While Pragati Dubey and Kirti Gupta were shooting for the ranking points. 
In the skeet events, too, the Indian shooters put on a disappointing show. In the men’s skeet, two-time Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan finished 116th in qualifying with 112 points. While Angad Vir Singh Bajwa was placed 74th with 117 points. 
Anant Jeet Singh Naruka (119 points) and Gurjoat Khangura (116 points) finished 55th and 82nd, respectively. 
Ganemat Sekhon and Darshna Rathore, competing in the women’s individual skeet event, also failed to reach the finals. 
Sekhon (120 points) finished ninth to miss the medal round by a point while Darshna Rathore finished 65th with 104 points. Maheshwari Chauhan was 36th with 114 points. 
In the skeet mixed team, the Indian pair of Ganemat Sekhon and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka was knocked out in the qualification round after finishing in 19th position. The other Indian pair of Darshna Rathore and Gurjoat Khangura finished in 21st position. 
Overall, India finished ninth in the medals tally at Lonato, which was topped by the USA with two golds and one silver. 
The ISSF Shotgun World Cup in Italy was a qualifying event for the Paris 2024 Olympics.