Akhil Sheoran won bronze in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions, while Ganemat Sekhon set a new national record in women’s skeet at the 2024 ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Sheoran’s effort meant India now have two medals in the annual ISSF season-ender with one more competition day left, with Sonam Uttam Maskar having won the silver in women’s air rifle silver on Tuesday.
Earlier in the day, the Sheoran had shot a solid 589 to qualify in sixth position for the eight-man final. He was upstaged by senior countryman Chain Singh, whose 590 gave him fourth place in the 12-man field.
Both Indians were lying in the sixth and seventh place at the end of the first 15-Kneeling position shots of the 45-shot final, however Sheoran made his move in the second prone position coming up to joint third with eventual silver winner Jiri Privratsky of Czechia.
Gold winning Hungarian ace Istvan Peni led from the start and had by then opened up a gap of 4.1 over Kazakh shooter Konstantin Malinovskiy, who held second place till 40-shots.
Sheoran came into his own in his the standing position, shooting mid to high 10s consistently and as Singh bowed out in seventh after the 40th shot, the fight for the minor medals lay between the Indian, Privratsky, the Chinese reigning Olympic champion Liu Yukun and Malinovskiy.
Malinovskiy succumbed to a 9.2 with his 41st shot and Liu fell short of Sheoran by 0.2 points after the 42nd as the Indian secured the first-ever World Cup final medal with a 10.7 and a 10.4.
He settled for bronze as despite a solid 10.7 with his final shot, the gap of 0.9 with Privratsky was too much to make up.
Ganemat Sekhon smashes national record
Women’s skeet shooter Ganemat Sekhon, marched into the final of her event with and set a national record in the process. With a scintillating qualification score of 122 over two days, she bettered her own mark by two points.
Sekhon also came off second best in an epic 56-shot shoot-off to determine placings, qualifying eventually in fourth place as American Dania Jo Vizzi took third. Former Olympic champion Diana Bacosi of Italy topped the 11-strong field with a score of 124.
Elsewhere Vivaan Kapoor in men’s trap and Anantjeet Singh Naruka, Mairaj Ahmad Khan in men’s skeet also qualified for the finals in their respective events.
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