Bhowneesh Mendiratta earns trap quota for Paris Games

Tribune News Service

Vinayak Padmadeo

Ahmedabad, September 28

One could sense the relief in Bhowneesh Mendiratta’s voice. As if a curse had been lifted from the Indian trap shooting team. Mendiratta earned India’s first quota place in trap for the Paris Olympics by finishing fourth at the ISSF World Championships in Osijek, Croatia.

After the Indian trap team went unrepresented at the Tokyo Olympics after none from the team won a quota, the squad was forced to watch two skeet shooters in Angad Veer Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan from the confines of their homes. On Wednesday though, Mendiratta, who resides in Faridabad, regained respect for the team when he came very near to topping the quota win with a podium finish.

“The last one to win a quota was Kynan Chenai at the Asian Qualifiers in January 2016. We had no quota for Tokyo and it was disappointing for everyone,” Mendiratta told The Tribune from Osijek.

“Now our aim is to max out our quotas and give some headache to the coaches about who to select for the Games. All in all our team is off to a good start and I am very happy about it,” the 23-year-old added.

Mendiratta was the first of the shooters to be eliminated in the 35-shot medal round after breaking 13 of the 15 clay birds. The top four finishers earn a quota for the country. The Indian won the quota after shooting down 24 out of 25 targets in the second ranking round. Earlier, Mendiratta finished fourth in the qualification with a score of 121.

Young career

Interestingly, the Osijek event was Mendiratta’s second competition as a senior pro. His first was the ISSF World Cup in South Korea, where he won a team silver medal alongside Vivaan Kapoor and Prithviraj Tondaiman.

Mendiratta had started out as a double trap shooter and only switched to trap after his favourite event was dropped from the Olympics programme. His first Nationals participating in trap was in 2017.

While Mendiratta is happy that he won a quota, there is some disappointment that he missed out on a medal. “If someone would have told me that I would be in the final of my second senior competition and then come out of it with a quota I would have laughed. The feeling is yet to sink, it is so unreal,” Mendiratta said.

“Once the quota is done you tend to get greedy. I know I should have walked away with a medal but it is my biggest achievement so far. Now the quota is done, the time is to put my head down and work harder,” he added.

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