Lakshay Sheoran, Neeru, emerge Trap champs at 3rd Digvijay Singh Memorial Shooting Championship

Ranvir Singh

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh) : It was a case of cousin’s day out as Asian Games silver medallist Lakshay Sheoran of Haryana and local favourite Neeru, picked up the men’s and women’s Trap titles at the 3rd Digvijay Singh Memorial Shooting Championship for Shotgun events, which concluded here at the MP State Academy (MPSA) Shooting range. Lakshay shot 47 to win the 50-shot final while cousin Neeru, who represents Madhya Pradesh, trapped two targets less, to come out on top of two very closely contested finals.

Lakshay, thanks to a great start to the final, managed to fend-off a super finish by Delhi’s Fahd Sultan as he finished two targets short of the winner. Qualification topper Suleman Arsh Elahi of Rajasthan won bronze even as Olympian Prithviraj Tondaiman finished fifth.

In the women’s final, it was an even closer fight and also provided by a Delhi shooter in the form of Kirti Gupta. However, one miss in the last 10 proved her undoing as Neeru clinched it by one in the end. This final also had a lone Olympian in Punjab’s Rajeshwari Kumari, but unlike Prithviraj, she did manage to pick up the bronze with a tally of 34 hits from the first 40-targets.

In the junior men’s final, recently crowned junior national champion Vinay Pratap Singh Chandrawat of Rajasthan continued his good early season form, shooting down 43-targets to win gold. Yugan SM of Tamil Nadu won silver with a hit less while another Rajasthan shooter Udhav Singh Rathore won bronze to make it a double podium for his state.

So did another recently crowned junior national champion Shreshtha Sisodiya, as she repeated her win over Uttar Pradesh’s Sabeera Harris in the junior nationals two weeks back to bag yet another gold, only this time having to take the shoot-off (2-1) route after both competitors tied at 41-hits after the regulation 50-targets.

The fifth final of the day, the Men’s Masters Trap, was won by Tamil Nadu veteran Govindaraj Thiruvenkatam, as he got the better of state mate Abhimanyu Prakash. Govindaraj ended with 36 hits to Prakash’s 34. Uttar Pradesh’s Inderjit Singh won bronze.