India finish Shotgun Worlds with 4 medals; Bhowneesh Mendiratta secures Paris 2024 quota

India finish Shotgun Worlds with 4 medals; Bhowneesh Mendiratta secures Paris 2024 quota

Bhowneesh Mendiratta

The ISSF Shotgun World Championships at Osijek, Croatia concluded today. India placed 5th on the medal table with 1 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronzes. But the best result came via Bhowneesh Mendiratta whose 4th-place finish in the Men’s Trap event secured the country’s first quota for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The medals were won by Areeba Khan (silver in Women’s Skeet Junior; Zahra Muffaddal Deesawala finished 4th in this competition), the Men’s Junior Trap Team of Arya Vansh Tyagi, Shapath Bharadwaj and Shardul Vihan (gold), the Skeet Junior Mixed Team of Bhavtegh Singh Gill and Zahra Muffaddal Deesawala (bronze) and the Men’s Junior Skeet Team of Bhavtegh Singh Gill, Abhay Singh Sekhon and Ritu Raj Bundela (bronze).

Bhowneesh Mendiratta produced the best performance among Indians in Olympic events. He qualified 4th with 121 and placed 1st in his ranking round with a score of 24 to ensure Indian representation in Men’s Trap at Paris 2024. However he was the first to be eliminated in the finals after missing 2 hits and missed out on a chance of a medal.

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Nevertheless it was a great display by Bhowneesh. Competing in his first senior Worlds, he edged out Olympians such as Aaron Heading and Rashid Hamad Al-Athba in the ranking round and finished well ahead of all Tokyo 2020 finalists in the qualifications.

No Indian Trap shooter was able to qualify for the Tokyo Games.

The gold at Osijek was won by Derrick Scott Mein of USA. Silver went to Nathan Hales of Great Britain and bronze to Kun-Pi Yang of Taipei.

Skeet disappoints

Men’s Trap was a pleasant surprise while more was expected from from Men’s Skeet. 2-time Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan who had won gold at the Changwon World Cup in July finished 54th at Osijek. Gurjoat Khangura was 51st while Anant Jeet Singh Naruka was 65th.

The Women’s Skeet and Trap teams too could not come close to qualifying though there were promising results by Juniors such as Areeba and Zahra.

Italy top medal standings

Shotgun powerhouses Italy topped the medal standings with 7 golds, 5 silvers and 2 bronzes though only 1 of their golds came in an Olympic event. Great Britain were 2nd with 4 golds and 4 silvers and USA were 3rd with 4 golds and 3 silvers.

In Men’s Skeet Egypt’s Azmy Mehelba clinched gold and scored an upset over multiple-time World and Olympic champion Vincent Hancock of USA. Qatar’s Rashid Saleh Al-Athba won bronze.

In Women’s Skeet Diana Bacosi of Italy successfully defended her WCH title, Amber Hill of GBR won silver and Samantha Simonton of USA won bronze.

Carole Cormenier of France won the Women’s Trap gold ahead of former world champion Fatima Galvez Marin of Spain. Reigning Olympic champion Zuzana Rehak-Stefecekova of Slovakia finished 3rd.

Great Britain’s Amber Hill and Ben Llewellin won gold in Skeet Mixed Team after beating the Italian team of Bacosi and Gabriele Rossetti. Teams from France and Kazakhstan won the two bronze medals on offer.

Mauro De Filippis and Giulia Grassia of Italy won gold in Trap Mixed Team. Great Britain’s Nathan Hales and Lucy Hall won silver while Australia and Slovenia won bronze.

The ISSF World Championships in Rifle/Pistol will begin in Cairo, Egypt from today and Indian shooters will aim to win more quota places for the 2024 Olympics. In the 2018 Shooting World Championships India had won 2 quotas for Tokyo 2020, both in Women’s 10m Air Rifle.

National Games medalists like Elavenil Valarivan, Mehuli Ghosh, Vijayveer Sidhu, Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil, Shiva Narwal and Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar will be among the names to watch out for at Cairo.