ISSF Shotgun World C'ships: Indian men's junior trap team bags gold

The Indian men's junior trap shooting team bagged the gold medal at the ongoing 2022 ISSF World Shotgun Championships in Osijek, Croatia. They defeated Italy 6-4 in the final.

The Indian team comprising of Vansh Tyagi, Shapath Bharadwaj, and Shardul Vihan started on the backfoot as they lost the first two series of 15 shots each and trailed 0-4.

While all three of Tyagi, Bharadwaj and Vihan missed a shot each in the first series, Bharadwaj's twin miss in the second left India reeling under pressure.

With the gold medal and the tag of Junior World Champions seemingly out of sights, the Indians fought back to win the third series of 15 shots before shooting a perfect 15 in the fourth to level the score at 4-4.

The fifth and final series of shots saw Shardul Vihan miss once, but Tyagi and Bharadwaj made up for it to help India to the gold medal.

Vansh Tyagi was the star of the final, hitting 24 out of his 25 targets for India. On the other hand, Vihan and Bharadwaj hit the target 22 and 21 times respectively.

India had earlier finished second in the qualification round after a shoot-out with the USA and thereby qualified for the final against Italy, who finished first.