MANAVADITYA, KEER SHOOT TRAP GOLDS

Pune: Rajasthan’s Manavaditya Singh Rathore on Saturday pulled himself together after an uncertain start and blazed to the men’s under-21 trap shooting gold medal at the Khelo India Youth Games here. If the son of 2004 Olympic Games double trap silver medallist and Union Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore was on top in the men’s final, it was a fisherman’s daughter, Manish Keer (Madhya Pradesh), who claimed the women’s

under-21 trap gold. Manisha, a World Junior Championship silver medallist trained by Olympian Mansher Singh, ran out a 38-35 winner over Delhi’s Kirti Gupta. While Manavaditya found his rhythm, 2018 Asian Games silver medallist Lakshya Sheoran lost his and finished in fourth place. Manavaditya, aged 19, shot down only five of the first

10 targets in the high-pressure final but bounced back by shooting nine of the next 10 to be in a comfortable third spot with five shots left before the first of the six finalists would be eliminated. Youth Olympic Games silver medallist Mehuli Ghosh won the women’s junior

(under-21) 10m air rifle gold. The 18-year-old from West Bengal asserted her class, shooting scores of 629.4 in the qualification and following it up with 252.1 that left her biggest challenger Elavenil Valarivan (Gujarat) in her wake. Heena Gohei (Gujarat) and Haryana’s Adarsh Singh won the other gold medals on offer on Saturday, doing well in the finals of the women’s under-17

10m air rifle and mens 25m rapid fire pistol respectively.