India’s hopes of a medal in the Men’s Trap shooting event were dealt with severe blows as Kynan Chenai and Manavjit Sandhu finished the first day of qualifiers way behind the top six. At the end of the first day, Chenai occupied 19th position while Sandhu with one point more than him saw himself drop to 17th in the standings where once he had raised expectations by climbing up to third position.
India’s Kynan Chenai started off decently and climbed up to the 10th position early on in the day. The top spot was initially held by Kuwaiti shooter Khaled Almudhaf shooting under the IOA flag, before Colombian shooter Danilo Guarnieri became the first to edge him past to the pole position.
The battle at the top of the table intensified in the first round between Danilo Guarnieri, England’s Edward Ling and Almudhaf, as the shooters were separated by a single point at one stage. Kynan once again dropped to 10th position. As more shots were fired, Danilo Guarnieri held on to the top spot as the second and third spot kept changing hands and it was fitting that the Colombian completed his first set with a perfect score. At this point, Kynan Chenai had fallen to 16th position and a herculean task awaited him if he was to qualify for the finals.
Second batch of shots is Fabbrizi’s moment
As the second batch of shooters took aim for their first set of shots, all eyes were on India’s Manavjit Singh Sandhu and the shooter started off on a rollicking note and climbed to the third spot in no time. Sandhu kept firing consistent scores and was immovable from his third place. Apart from Sandhu, Croatia’s Josip Glasnovic too, however, was on a roll and became the second shooter to score the perfect 25 after Guarnieri.
Sandhu’s dream run came to a halt finally when he missed towards the end of his set and that saw the shooter fall from number 3 to number 13 in the table. Worse was to follow as another missed attempt meant the shooter who had started so well suddenly found himself in 15th position. From what looked like a walk in the park a few moments ago had changed to a steep climb for the Indian in a matter of few bad shots. Massimo Fabbrizi was scripting his own tale and became the third shooter to race to the perfect score of 25, making matters all the more tough for Sandhu.
Sandhu continued in a similar vein in the second round and once again shot 23 out of 25 but by now others had upped the ante and Sandhu’s efforts were not proving enough. Kynan Chenai bettered his first round show, but much more was needed of him if he was to make the top 6 and by the end of second round, the 25-year-old had all but killed his chances. The matters at the top of the table wore a completely new colour at the end of the second round –safe to say Azure blue as two Italians Massimo Fabbrizi and Giovanni Pellielo occupied the top two positions.
The third round saw Kynan Chenai start off on a bright note but his graph dipped as dramatically as it had risen and the shooter finished the day at 19th position with a score of 67/75. Sandhu’s hopes of securing a place in the top 6 looked all but over after a subpar performance by his standards in the final round of the day where he could finish only in the 17h position and with a score just one better than his compatriot Chenai.
Fabbrizi, however, ended the third round with another perfect score to cap off a brilliant day. The third round also saw Great Britain’s Edward Ling to put up a stunning show to climb his way to the second position at the end of the first day of the qualifier.
1. Massimo Fabbrizi - Italy (75)2. Edward Ling - Great Britain (73)3. Giovanni Pellielo - Italy (73)4. Josip Glasnovic - Croatia (72)5. David Kostelecky - Czech Republic (72)6. Ilnam Yavuz - Turkey (71)
