Asian Shooting Championships: Kynan Chenai struggles in trap final

A day after Manu Bhaker and Deepak Kumar gave India good reason to cheer at the 14th Asian Shooting Championships in Doha, the nation’s contingent endured a below-par day at the Lusail Shooting Complex, as neither their trap nor pistol shooters could produce fine shows on Wednesday.

Competing in the men’s trap, Kynan Chenai came close to a medal and an Olympic quota but failed to produce a similar showing in the medal round. The Indian ended up sixth in the final, where he was the first one to be eliminated, managing to hit 13 clay discs in the five rounds before elimination.

Below-par show

Chenai, who finished the qualification behind leader and the eventual bronze medalist Naser Meqlad of Kuwait with 122 points, was joint second after the first five shots in the final, with three successful hits. However, he slowly faded out, failing to get his shots right as the competition progressed.

Missing the first three targets in the second round meant the Indian slipped further in the pecking order and stared at an uphill climb after just two successful shots in the third. Though he managed to crack the clay discs thrice in the fourth and the fifth round, it wasn’t enough to help him stay in the competition.

Not a happy sight

With Manavjit Singh Sandhu (118 points) and Prithviraj Tondaiman (117 points) finishing ninth and 11th in the qualification, it’s all up to the skeet shooters from the country to ensure Indian participation at the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

If the skeet team too fails to bag a quota place at the Championships, the India will be without any participation in the shotgun competition at the next Olympics for the first time since the 1996 Games in Atlanta.

Bhanwala misses the cut

Earlier in the day, India’s pistol shooters suffered an off day as they failed to make it to the final of the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol.

Anish Bhanwala was the best among the Indians, finishing 11th in the qualification with 574 points to his name. Adarsh Singh and Bhavesh Shekhawat were 14th and 15th respectively.

In the women’s trap event, Shreyasi Singh came mighty close to making the final but failed to make the cut after missing her shot in the shoot-off and ended up sixth in the competition. With as many as five shooters eyeing the only remaining slot in the medal round, the Indian ended up bowing out after missing her second shot.

Meanwhile, in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team, although the duo of Anjum Moudgil and Deepak Kumar made it to the second qualification round, they too had to be content with a sixth-place finish after a total score of 415.2.