ISSF Junior Shotgun WC: Akash Saharan finishes sixth in men's trap event

India's Akash Saharan finished sixth even as Spain's Adria Martinez shot a world record score of 46 out of 50 in the finals of the men's trap event to clinch gold at the International Shooting Sport Federation ( ISSF) Junior World Cup Shotgun, being held at Porpetto, Italy.

Akash Saharan made it to the six-man final round in commendable second place out of 70 shooters but that was not enough for a medal. He even got the better of Adria in a three-way shoot-off to determine qualifying positions for the final and took an early joint-lead in the finals having shot four out of four, but then missed eight of the next 21 to settle for sixth place.

Adria Martinez was involved in an intense battle for Gold in the end with Italian Matteo Marongiu, who is a World Cup Bronze medalist as well as a European Championship Silver medalist at the junior level, eventually prevailing 46-43. Turkey's Murat Ilbilgi won the Bronze with a score of 36 in the finals.

Akash had earlier shot 114 out of 125 in qualifying and had won a three-way shoot-off 11-10 to push the Italian Matteo Marongiu into the third qualifying spot. Adria was first one out in the shoot-off.

Italy had on 17 August, completed a clean sweep of the Women's Junior Trap event. On Friday, they added another Silver to that tally to comfortably lead the medals table. Spain and Turkey are the only other medal winning countries in the competition.

On 19 August will see the Mixed Team Trap test events while Sunday has two finals on the schedule- the Junior Men's Double Trap and the junior Women's Skeet.

-ANI