National shotgun championship: Shardul Vihan, Bhavya Tripathi clinch gold in men’s and women’s trap final

National shotgun championship: Shardul Vihan, Bhavya Tripathi clinch gold in men’s and women’s trap final

Shardul Vihan was a class act as he beat defending champion and Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Sheoran 45-42 for the men’s trap gold in the 67th National shotgun championship on a cold and gloomy morning at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Thursday.

It was a commendable fare from the 22-year-old Shardul who had made the final by winning the last berth after a shoot-off with four others.

“I was just enjoying shooting and was not thinking about the result, in the final or in the shoot-off to make the final. I am glad that I have won all four gold medals in the Nationals,” said Shardul who had earlier won the junior trap gold, and had won the men’s and junior double trap gold before that.

In fact, Shardul had won the Asian Games silver in double trap in 2018. He gave credit to the former World Champion Khaled Almudhaf of Kuwait for honing his skills in the last two years in trap.

Almudhaf was at the range watching the competition, and was thrilled to see another of his trainees, Bhavya Tripathi defend the women’s crown. Bhavya beat Sabeera Haris 9-8 in the shoot-off for the gold, after the two were tied on 41 at the end of the 50-shot final.

Shrestha Sisodiya was gritty in winning the bronze ahead of Neeru, Kirti Gupta and the qualification topper Rajeshwari Kumari.

Shrestha asserted herself later by winning the junior gold with a 44-41 win over Sabeera.

In the men’s final, Olympian Prithviraj Tondaiman won the bronze ahead of Zuhair Khan, Jaswinder Singh and Zoravar Singh Sandhu.

In the junior men’s final, Vinay Pratap Singh beat Shardul 43-41 for the gold, to do a world of good to his confidence.