Sheeraz Sheikh returned the best Indian score on the first qualification day of the Men’s Skeet event, the medal round for which will conclude the second International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage in Changwon, Korea. Sheeraz shot 49 out of 50 to place 11th with three more rounds of qualification to go on Sunday before the finals. The top six among the 81 shooters in fray will make it to the finals.
Two other Indians in the fray Smit Singh and Angad Bajwa shot scores of 48 and 47 to lie in 23rd and 34th positions respectively.
On the penultimate day of competitions on Saturday, Skeet legend Kimberly Rhode of the USA won the Women’s Skeet Gold. It was the American’s 17th World Cup stage career Gold and she won it with a world record to boot, shooting 58 out of 60 targets in the final. Kimberly Rhode is a three time Olympic champion and a former World Champion.
India’s Saniya Sheikh registered a 22nd place finish in the event with a score of 111 in qualification out of a possible 125. Ganemat Shekhon shot 102 to finish 52nd while Maheshwari Chauhan ended in 54th spot with a score of 101.
China and Russia continued to dominate the competition, accounting for seven of the 14 Gold medals won so far with the remaining seven being distributed equally among hosts Korea, Australia, Italy, Slovakia, Finland, Belarus and the USA.
Of the 42 total medals, the two sporting giants have won a total of 12 among them. 24 of the 70 participating countries have won medals so far in Changwon. India is in in 11th place with Shahzar Rizvi winning Silver in the Men’s 10m Air Pistol earlier in the competition. Eight Indian shooters have reached a total of seven finals at Changwon including in two team events.
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