Asian Games: Gold for men's trap team; Kynan shoots down individual bronze

It was a bittersweet Sunday for Indian trap exponents as they came up with fine performances in men's and women's team categories, clinching gold and silver respectively, before imploding in the individual events with only Kynan Chenai managing a bronze.

With three medals in trap on the last day of shooting competition, India will return home with an amazing haul of 22 medals -- seven gold, nine silver and six bronze -- their best ever in the continental showpiece.

The Indian men's team, comprising the triumvirate of Prithviraj Tondaiman (119), Kynan Chenai (122) and Zoravar Singh Sandhu (120), won the gold medal with an Asian Games record of 361 in the qualification to finish ahead of the silver-medallist team of Khaled Almudhaf, Talal Alrashidi and Abdulrahman Alfaihan (359).

China's Yuhao Guo, Ying Qi and Yuhao Wang (354) settled for the bronze with a score of 354.

Stalwarts Kynan and Zoravar also qualified for the six-shooter finals for individual glory placed first and second respectively, raising hopes of a gold-silver finish.

Just before that, the trio of Manisha Keer (114), Preeti Rajak (112) and Rajeshwari Kumari (111) claimed the silver medal in women's trap team event aggregating 337 and adding to the Indian shooting contingent's best-ever show at the Games.

China's Qingnian Li, Cuicui Wu and Xinqiu Zhang combined to shoot a world and games record score of 357 to finish on top of the podium, while Kazakhstan's Mariya Dmitriyenko, Aizhan Dosmagambetova and Anastassiya Prilepina (336) bagged the bronze medal.

Manisha also entered the six-shooter finals placed fifth after a nervous shoot-off with two others on 114.

Both men's trap marksmen slipped badly in the finals, with Kynan managing an individual bronze after being in contention for silver, while Zoravar, a veteran of three Asian Games, dozens of World Cup and World Championships and over 25 years of top-level shooting, finishing a distant fifth shooting 23 clay bird out of 30.

Zoravar had competed in his 1998 Asian Games in Bangkok where he had finished sixth, while at the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games he had finished 28th. The 46-year-old veteran of nearly a dozen Asian Championships as well, missed three shots in his last series.

Kynan though chugged along before he lost his rhythm in the last three series of five shots each, missing five clay pigeons to settle for bronze with a score of 32/40.

China's Qi Ying, who was placed sixth and last initially after missing two targets in the first series of five shots, staged a remarkable recovery to win gold (46/50) and push favourite Talal Alrashidi (45/50) of Kuwait to silver.

In women's individual event, Manisha Keer finished sixth and last scoring 16/25 in the finals. China's Zhang Xinqiu won the gold with and Asian and Games record of 47/50, while country-mate Wu Cuicui (43) bagged the silver medal.

Kazakhstan's Mariya Dmitriyenko earned the bronze with a score of 34/40.

India's Rajeshwari Kumari, who was the favourite to secure a place in the individual finals following her Paris Olympic quota-place winning feat at the World Championships in Baku recently, had a second off day after her below-par showing on Saturday -- the first day of trap competition.

She finished a distant 11th, scoring 111/125, while another Indian Preeti Rajak (112/125) ended up ninth with both missing the individual finals by a distance. Manisha Keer (114) was the only Indian who made it to the finals placed fifth, but pressure got the better of her as she ended up sixth and last.

"I didn't perform well yesterday. I have absolutely no complaints. There is nothing I could say, 'this could be better'," said Rajeshwari on her performance.

On winning the team silver, she said, "I cannot tell you how I feel now. This is my first Asian Games."