Indian trap shooter Prithviraj finishes 21st; women trail on Day 1 of qualification

Chateauroux (France), Jul 30 (PTI) India’s miserable run on the shotgun ranges continued with trap shooter Prithviraj Tondaiman, despite shooting two perfect scores of 25 in the last two qualification rounds on Tuesday, finished 21st among 30 marksmen at the Olympic Games here.

The top-six shooters make it to the final round and, with an aggregate score of 118/125 after five rounds of qualification over two days, Tondaiman was five points adrift of the top-four shooters who shot 123 each in a high-quality field.

The 37-year-old Tondaiman, who had shot 22, 25, 21, on Day 1 of the qualification round on Monday and was placed last among 30 competitors, fared much better with two perfect-25s on Tuesday but it came too late in the day at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

On a day when pistol shooter Manu Bhaker added a second bronze to her kitty in 10m air pistol mixed team event partnering Sarabjot Singh, the women’s trap shooters, Rajeshwari Kumari and Shreyasi Singh, were completely off target.

Rajeshwari shot 68 out of 75 over three round of qualification on Day 1 to be placed 21st among 30 competitors, while Shreyasi was further down at 22nd.

The two will play two more rounds of qualification on Wednesday before the top-six finalists are decided.