Porpetto [Italy], September 19 : Indian shooter Yugan Sakthivel Muthukumaar clinched the gold medal in the men’s trap event at the ISSF Junior World Cup Shotgun 2026 in Porpetto, Italy, on Friday, according to Olympics.com.
The 15-year-old produced a strong performance in the eight-shooter final, hitting 27 out of 30 targets to finish ahead of Italy’s Francesco Tanfoglio by one target and secure India’s first medal at the Porpetto meet.
Yugan had qualified sixth for the final with a score of 114/125 and earned his spot in the medal round after prevailing in a shoot-off, according to Olympics.com.
Among the other Indian shooters in the men’s trap qualification, Arjun and Vinay Pratap Singh Chandrawat finished 12th and 13th respectively with scores of 112, while Udhav Singh Rathore ended in 16th place with 111.
In the women’s trap event, junior Asian champion Sabeera Haris was the lone Indian shooter to qualify for the final. She entered the medal round after finishing sixth in qualification with a score of 108/125 through a shoot-off.
However, Sabeera could not secure a medal in the final, finishing sixth after hitting nine of 15 targets.
Bhavya Tripathi and Krishika Joshi narrowly missed out on a final spot after both scored 105 in qualification, finishing ninth and 10th respectively.
Earlier in the competition, India failed to win a medal in the men’s and women’s junior skeet events, with no Indian shooter advancing to either final.
The Porpetto event is the second junior ISSF World Cup of the year. The opening tournament, held in Cairo, Egypt, in April, featured rifle, pistol and shotgun disciplines.
India topped the medal tally in Cairo with 16 medals, including five gold, six silver and five bronze medals. Zuhair Khan and Addya Katyal’s mixed trap bronze was India’s only shotgun medal at that event.
The competition will conclude on Saturday with the junior mixed team trap event, which will be the final medal event of the tournament.