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One of India’s finest shooters, Manavjit Singh Sandhu has secured the men’s trap gold medal at the ISSF Shotgun World Cup which which is being held in Tucson, USA.
Former World champion Sandhu scored 121 in the qualification, followed by 13 in the finals to finish the trap with a gold medal with his name.
“We had some of the world’s best shooters competing today,” said a delighted Manavjit who beat Olympic champion Michael Diamond to clinch the medal. “Winning the match against Michael Diamond has been definitely challenging but at the end you have to hit your own target, and the final score is what it is.”
“I have prepared for this first World Cup throughout the winter season. We had several championships and trials in India in the last months. I never stopped shooting,” he added.
Ranked 16 in the world now, Sandhu was up against Australia’s Michael Diamond who had won the the Olympic gold medal for trap twice in a row in Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. Russian Olympic Trap shooter Alexey Alipov finished third.
Sandhu had previously won the tournament back in 2006 with a score of 143 out of 150 in the 2006 ISSF World Shooting Championships at Zagreb following which he was honoured with the country’s greatest award for excelling in sports, the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award.
