Podium finish for India’s trap shooter Prithviraj Tondaiman at Doha World Cup

India’s experienced trap shooter Prithviraj Tondaiman clinched his first individual men’s trap medal at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Shotgun in Doha, Qatar.

On Saturday, Tondaiman, 35, settled for bronze with 20 hits from the first 25 targets in the medal match at the Lusail Shooting Range. The 40-year-old Tuzun Oguzhan secured a gold medal. He shot 33 targets in the 35-shot medal match, while the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games bronze medallist Matthew John Coward-Holley won silver with 30 hits.

India’s trap shooter was in the fourth spot after 75 targets on day 1 of the qualification round. He shot two rounds of 24 each out of a possible 25 to post a score of 122 out of 125.

Tondaiman’s overall performance enabled him to finish in the top eight. He still had to go through a shoot-off to determine the qualifying ranks. He finished third in the five-way shoot-off to claim the sixth qualifying spot to stay in the race for a medal.

As many as 14 shooters finished with a score of 121 and Tuzun won the shoot-off to claim the eighth and final qualifying spot for the final.

In his 25-shot ranking match, Tondaiman missed just three targets to top the field with 22-hits. Matthew hit 21 and accompanied Tondaiman to the medal match. Tuzun and Nased Meqlad of Kuwait were the other two shooters in the race for the medal.

Both Tondaiman and Naser then missed two of their first 15 medal match targets, but Naser bowed out on account of lower bib number, which paved the way for the Indian shooter to earn bronze at the ISSF World Cup.

India’s international shooter Shreyasi Singh also made the ranking round in the women’s trap competition, but bowed out with 21-hits out of 25.

Tokyo Olympics Mixed Team Trap gold medallist Fatima Galvez of Spain topped the match with 24-hits, while eventual gold medallist Penny Smith of Australia also made it to the medal match with 23-hit.

Shreyasi earlier equalled the national record score of 118 out of a posstile 125 to finish sixth in qualifying.

India’s Rajeshwari Kumari recovered from a moderate day one to score rounds of 22 and 23 on Saturday to find herself in the 46th spot with a total score of 107. The third Indian in contention, Preeti Rajak, shot 105 to finish further down at 50th position. Kirti Gupta, who played for ranking points, only shot 110.

Bhowneesh Mendiratta was the second-best Indian in men’s trap with a score of 120, giving him a 27th place finish while Zoravar Singh Sandhu shot 119 to claim 38th spot. Kynan Chenai shot 118 for ranking points only.