Manavjit traps gold

Dec 26:  World champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu held his nerves in the closing stages despite being two-points behind against the in-form Birendeep Sodhi in the penultimate round as he clinched the men’s trap title with an aggregate score of 138 in the 51st National shotgun shooting championship at the Oases ranges here on Tuesday.

Manavjit entered into the six-man final round with a total of 115, while Birendeep leading the chart with the score of 117 and he was going well in the previous three rounds earlier in the day.

Birendeep shot a series of 24, 24, 23, 23, 23, while Manavjit’s only flaw was in the second round where he shot 22 otherwise he matched up Birendeep shot for a shot in the remaining rounds.

Birendeep missed a shot on the second bird in the decider; while Manavjit was again back into the two-point deficit as the Olympic quota holder missed his fifth bird.

Both were going neck to neck till the 21st shot when both of them missed the birds. But Manavjit hit the clay pigeons with meticulousness in his last four targets while Birendeep floundered and missed the next three.

Manavjit Singh Sandhu pocketed gold with a score of 115+ 23, Sodhi had to content with the silver with 117+20 while veteran Mansher Singh won the bronze with 113+19.

Later, Manavjit (115), Mansher (113) and Raninder Singh (101) helped Punjab to win the team gold with 329 points. Silver went to Indian Airlines. Birendeep Sodhi (117), S.M. Faizal (97) and Zorawar Singh (107) helped the airlines side accumulate 321 points. Andhra Pradesh got bronze medal as Asher Noria (102), Darius Chenai (103) and Khurram (97) tallied 302 points.

In women’s trap, Seema Tomar of Army won the title with an impressive score of 89. Seema also set a new national record of 67 surpassing 65 of Shagun Chawdhary, set at the last edition of the championship in Delhi.

Seema also bettered the total record by scoring 89 after a final round of 22. Shagun, who had shot 75 in Bangkok in 2005, also held this record. In junior women's event, Shreyasi Singh of Bihar bagged the gold with 33/75 while Shreya Chowdhary of Rajsthan settled for the silver with 25/75 points.

RESULTS

Men’s Trap: 1. Manavjit Singh Sandhu (Pun) (115, 23) 138, 2. Birendeep Sodhi (IA) (117, 20) 137, 3. Mansher Singh (113, 19) 132.

Women’s Trap: 1. Seema Tomar (Army) (67, 22) 89, 2. Shagun Chawdhary (61, 19) 80, 3. Varsha Tomar (Army) (54, 15) 69.