ISSF Shotgun World Cup Larnaca 2023: India shooters draw blank in Cyprus
None of the Indian skeet or trap shooters, including Olympian Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, managed to reach the finals in any of the events.
Shooting
Indian shooters put on a disappointing show in the ISSF Shotgun World Cup 2023 in Larnaca, Cyprus, which concluded on Sunday.
None of the Indians managed to reach the finals or the ranking rounds in any of the skeet and trap shooting events.
In the men’s skeet, Olympian Angad Vir Singh Bajwa finished a disappointing 39th with 116 points in the qualifying round while Abhay Singh Sekhon ranked 89th with 108 points. Man Singh finished 107th with 105 points. None made the ranking round.
In the women’s skeet, India’s Raiza Dhillon failed to progress beyond the qualification stage after finishing 17th with 114 points while Parinaaz Dhaliwal (108 points) and Areeba Khan (105 points) finished 40th and 49th, respectively.
The skeet mixed team event, too, saw Indian shooters fail to progress beyond the qualifiers. The pair of Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Areeba Khan scored a combined total of 131 points to finish 16th. The other India pair of Man Singh and Raiza Dhillon were ranked 22nd with a total of 125.
In the trap men’s event, Lakshay scored 114 points to finish 50th and was the best-ranked Indian in the qualification round. Olympian Prithviraj Tondaiman (110 points), Bakhtyaruddin Mohamadmuzahid Malek (106 points) and Arya Vansh Tyagi (104) failed to qualify after finishing 79th, 106th and 114th, respectively.
Five Indian shooters participated in the women’s trap event.
Sabeera Haris ranked 20th in qualifying with 108 points while Manisha Keer (106 points) and Shagun Chowdhary finished 26th and 42nd. Kiran ranked 19th with 108 points and Kirti Gupta, who finished 27th, was only participating for ranking points.
In the trap mixed team event, Lakshay Sheoran and Manisha Keer shot 132 to finish 13th in the 23-team line-up. Bakhtyauddin Malek and Sabeera Haris, the other Indian team in fray, were 20th with a score of 122.
India have so far won one 2024 Paris Olympics quota in the shotgun events when Bhowneesh Mendiratta finished fourth in the world championships in Croatia last year.
A total of 16 Indian shooters competed at the Cyprus meet.
The next ISSF Shotgun World Cup is in Almaty, Kazakhstan from May 16 to 25.