ISSF World Cup Final 2024: Vivaan Kapoor traps silver, Anantjeet Singh Naruka wins skeet bronze

India’s Vivaan Kapoor won a silver medal in men’s skeet while Anantjeet Singh Naruka bagged a bronze in the trap event at the ISSF World Cup Final 2024, which concluded in New Delhi on Thursday.

The two medals on the final day of the season-ending ISSF World Cup saw Indian shooters finish with a total of four medals - two silvers and as many bronze.

Earlier, Sonam Maskar won silver in women’s 10m air rifle while Akhil Sheoran took the bronze in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions shooting event.

The tally also marks a four-fold increase in India’s medal tally from last year’s ISSF World Cup Final. Anish Bhanwala accounted for India’s only medal, a bronze, at the 2023 edition in Doha.

Vivaan Kapoor, 22, registered his first-ever individual medal in a senior shooting competition after shooting an impressive 44 in the men’s trap final to finish behind the People’s Republic of China’s Ying Qi (47).

Turkish shotgun shooter N Tolga Tuncer took the bronze in the event with 35.

Vivaan had earlier finished third in the men’s trap qualifying round to make the six-man final. Bhowneesh Mendiratta had missed the cut after finishing eighth.

Neither of the Indian women managed to make the final in women’s trap with Shreyasi Singh and Rajeshwari Kumari finishing eighth and 11th, respectively in the qualifiers.

Anantjeet Singh Naruka, a silver medal winner from the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou last year, shot 43 for his place on the men’s skeet podium. Italy’s Tammaro Cassandro (56) and Gabriele Rossetti (53) took the gold and silver, respectively.

Veteran Mairaj Ahmad Khan (16) had also made the medal round but finished bottom among the six finalists.

Naruka, who narrowly missed a bronze medal in mixed team skeet at the Paris 2024 Olympics earlier this year, had fifth in the qualifying just ahead of Mairaj.

Meanwhile, Maheshwari Chauhan, who had partnered with Naruka in the mixed team event at Paris 2024, had a disappointing outing and failed to make the final of the women’s skeet event after finishing eighth in qualifying.

Ganemat Sekhon made the medal round after placing fourth in the qualifiers but could only manage a sixth-place finish in the final round.