Lonato (Italy), Jul 5 (PTI) Young skeet shooter Bhavtegh Singh Gill and veteran Mairaj Ahmad impressed, missing just one target each to finish joint 14th after the opening day of the men’s skeet event at the ISSF World Cup (Shotgun) on Sunday, raising India’s hopes of securing its first medal of the season after drawing a blank at the previous two World Cups.
Former India shooter Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, who now represents Canada after competing for India at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2018 Jakarta Asian Games, was among a crowded group of 14 shooters tied for the lead with a perfect 50, including four-time Olympic gold medallist Vincent Hancock, underlining the depth and intensity of the competition.
On a day when even near-flawless performances
were not enough, Gill and Mairaj’s tally of 49 left them well behind the leaders, highlighting the razor-thin margins in a fiercely competitive field of 173 shooters. The India duo was tied along with 24 others.
Meanwhile, Olympian and reigning Asian champion Anant Jeet Singh Naruka was tied at 69th position along with 26 others with a score of 47 after the opening two rounds, which may well have put him out of contention for a finals berth.
The qualification continues with two more rounds of 25 targets on Monday and a final round on Tuesday, after which the top eight will advance to the final of the season’s third ISSF Shotgun World Cup.
In the women’s section, Indian skeet shooter Parinaaz Dhaliwal impressed by finishing tied-11th, while Olympians Maheshwari Chauhan and Raiza Dhillon struggled in another extremely strong field of 85 shooters, many of them Olympic and World Championship medallists.
Dhaliwal shot 47 out of 50 (24 and 23 in the opening two rounds) to finish the day tied-11th alongside 11 others. France’s leader Noemie Battault was flawless with a perfect 50, while four shooters were on 49 and two on 48.
The competition resumes on Monday with two qualifying rounds before the final qualifying round on Tuesday, with the top eight progressing to the final.
Olympian Maheshwari began strongly with 24 in the opening round but missed three targets in the second to finish on 46, dropping to tied-23rd alongside 13 others and leaving herself with work to do to make the final.
Fellow Olympian Raiza Dhillon managed 45 to be tied-38th alongside 15 others, leaving her qualification hopes hanging by a thread despite three rounds still to come.
All three Indians — Dhaliwal, Maheshwari and Raiza — have been selected for the Asian Games in Aichi-Nagoya later this year, making a strong performance, and ideally a medal, in Lonato an important confidence booster ahead of the continental showpiece.
India’s shotgun shooters are still chasing their first individual medal of the season, having drawn a blank at the previous World Cups in Tangier, Morocco, and Almaty, Kazakhstan, making the Lonato meet a crucial opportunity to build momentum ahead of the Asian Games. PTI AM AM KHS
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