Sodhi fails to qualify for men’s double trap finals

LONDON, Aug 2:
Major shooting medal hope, Ronjan Sodhi, flopped and failed to qualify for the finals of the men’s double trap event to strike a big blow for Indian hopes at the Olympic Games here today.
In the qualifying rounds, former world No. 1 from Ferozepur, fired 134 out of 150 to finish a shocking 11th out of 24 competitors and crashed out of the competition in which the top six sailed into the finals to be held later today.
Sodhi, who won the gold in the 2010 Asian Games at Guangzhou, started encouragingly to tally 48 out of 50 in the first round before he began misfiring and logged a poor 44 and 42 in the next two rounds that dashed his hopes.
“I just don’t know what happened,” a shocked Sodhi told reporters after his qualification round got over.
The world No. 10 admitted that this was easily his worst performance in the international arena in the last few years.
“I have never shot so badly. I have not dropped so many shots in the last round. But I guess there was some technical problem, which I need to analyse.”
32-year-old Sodhi, however, refused to agree that his performance was related to the stage fright that top Indian athletes have suffered over the years during their participation at the quadrennial extravaganza.
“People talk about pressure in the Olympics but I did well in the first round. If I had continued in the same manner, I could have made the finals,” lamented the shooter.
“Till the last 3 or 4 shots I thought I would be able to make the cut. It is a bit disappointing as I trained hard and was hoping to do well,” he added.(PTI)

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