Manavjit Singh Sandhu bags gold in National Shooting Championship trap event

Jaipur: Former world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu clinched the gold medal in men’s trap event at the 60th National Shooting Championship for Shotgun in Jaipur on Saturday. The four-time Olympian from Punjab shot 117 in qualifying to reach the six-man final rounds in fourth spot. He then shot 12 out of 15 birds in the semi-final stage to make it to the gold medal match and defeated Raninder Singh, who was representing Odisha, 14-13, to seal the top spot in his favour. Young Kynan Chenai of Telengana, who represented India at the Rio Olympics, bagged the bronze medal beating Adhiraj Singh Rathore of Rajasthan 14-12. [caption id=“attachment_3115114” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  File photo of Manavjit Singh Sandhu. AFP[/caption] While Manavjit has won several national titles before and is used to success at this level, it was the second successive silver medal for National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) president Raninder. Zoravar Singh Sandhu, who had topped qualifying with a score of 121, helped Air India land the team gold in the event, while bronze medallist Adhiraj won team silver as well, with Rajasthan. Manavjit and his team Punjab had to be content with the bronze. In the junior men’s trap event, Lakshay Sheoran of Haryana overcame a spirited challenge from Rajasthan’s Manavaditya Singh Rathore to win the gold medal. Akash Saharan of Madhya Pradesh bagged the bronze. Lakshay though lost out on the team gold to Manavaditya, while Akash had to be content with yet another bronze in the team section.