Indian teenager shooter Lakshay Sheoran clinched the silver medal in men’s trap at the ongoing Asian Games on Monday with brilliant marksmanship in both the qualification and finals. The 19-year-old scored 43 out of 50 points in the final to win his first big medal at the seniors level.
The other Indian in the fray, former world champion Manavjit Singh Sandhu, narrowly missed out on a medal, finishing fourth shooting 26 of the 30 shots. He had earlier topped the qualification with 119 out of 125 points and 12 on 12 in the shoot-off.
Chinese Taipei’s Yang Kunpei won the gold with a score of 48 out of 50, while Korea’s Daemyeong Ahn bagged bronze after scoring 30.
In the final, the first-placed Sandhu shot three out of the first five targets, while Lakshay managed four, before both hit perfect second rounds.
In fact, after missing his first shot, Lakshay then hit 17 in a row and was tied for the first spot after 15 shots. Sandhu and Lakshay missed one target each in the fourth of five series before elimination, where Lakshay dropped down to second while Sandhu went to fifth.
In the seventh series, Sandhu missed three targets which meant that he had to miss out on a medal.
Lakshay and Yang Kunpi both scored perfect series heading into the final round, and while the Indian was still in the fray, the gap between the two was too much to conquer. He missed just one target in the final series and won the silver.
This was India’s third shooting medal at the ongoing Asiad and second silver of the day after Deepak Kumar’s 10m air rifle medal.
Lakshay will also be in action in the mixed trap event.
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