Asian Games 2023 shooting: Indian shooters end Hangzhou campaign with gold medal in men’s trap
Kynan Chenai, who won an individual bronze too, combined with Zoravar Singh Sandhu and Prithviraj Toindaman for a new Asian Games record. Women’s team bagged silver.
Shooting
Indian shooters wrapped up their historic campaign at the Asian Games 2023 with a gold and silver medal in the men’s and women’s trap shooting team events, respectively, in Hangzhou, the People’s Republic of China on Sunday.
Kynan Chenai, Zoravar Singh Sandhu and Prithviraj Toindaman won the gold medal for India in the men’s trap team with an Asian Games record of 361. The women’s trap team of Manisha Keer, Preeti Rajak and Rajeshwari Kumari won silver with a combined score of 337.
Medals in the trap team events at the Shotgun Ranges were awarded on the basis of cumulative scores of the shooters from each country in the qualifying round.
Kynan Chenai missed just three shots in the qualifying round and topped with 122/125. The 46-year-old Zoravar Singh Sandhu, who was a member of the Indian men’s team that won a silver medal 25 years ago in Bangkok, was second in the qualifying round with 120. Prithviraj Toindaman was 11th with 119.
Kynan Chenai went on to bag an individual bronze in the final after scoring 32/40 while Zoravar Singh Sandhu finished fifth with 23/30. Only the top six in the qualifying round advanced to the individual final.
China’s Ying Ki won the gold medal after hitting 46 of his 50 shots on target while Kuwait’s Talal Al-Rashidi, whose father Abdullah Al-Rashidi beat Anantjeet Singh Naruka for gold in men’s skeet, claimed the silver with 45/50.
Manisha Keer shot a perfect 25 in the fourth set and was the only Indian to progress to the individual finals in the women’s trap with a score of 114/125. However, she was the first to get eliminated in the six-woman final after missing four of the 20 shots.
Rajeshwari Kumari, who obtained an Olympic quota for India at the ISSF World Championship 2023 earlier this year, was only 11th after scoring 111 in the qualifying round. Preeti Rajak was ninth with 112.
The three medals took India’s tally in shooting at the Asian Games 2023 to 22. It is India’s best showing in shooting at the continental showpiece with seven gold, nine silver and six bronze medals.
India’s previous best was three golds out of 14 medals at Doha 2006. At Jakarta 2018, India finished with nine medals, including two golds.