Zoravar fifth after day one of trap qualification, women disappoint

Athens, Oct 15 (PTI) India's trap shooting stalwart Zoravar Sandhu produced a steady performance to end day one of qualification placed fifth in the ISSF World Championships Shotgun, here on Wednesday.

The 48-year-old Zoravar shot rounds of 24 and 25 to aggregate 49, in a strong field of 133 athletes at the Malakasa Shooting Range.

As many as 13 other shooters aggregated 49 on the opening day of qualification but Zorawar was placed fifth because of better countback score.

Croatia's Anton Glasnovic and Toufik El Hamri of Morocco are leading the qualification with perfect 50 scores.

Among the other Indians, Vivaan Kapoor and Bhowneesh Mendiratta hit perfect 25s in the second round to end the day with 48 and 47 hits respectively.

Vivaan shot 23 and 25 in his two rounds, while Bhowneesh recorded 22 and 25, to stand (17th) and (40th) respectively.

In women's trap, Kirti Gupta shot 20 and 22 to total 42/50, placing 43rd. Neeru Dhanda also finished with 42 hits (23, 19) to stand 50th, while Aashima Ahlawat shot 20 and 19 for a total of 39 hits, placing her 67th after the first two rounds.

Germany's Kathrin Murche is leading the women's qualification with a perfect 50, followed by Beatriz Martinez of Spain with 49.

The trap qualification will continue on Thursday with another 50 targets each for men and women, followed by a final 25 on Friday. After 125 targets, the top six shooters in each category will progress to the finals. PTI AM AM AT AT