ISSF World Cup Shotgun Lonato 2023: Ganemat Sekhon shoots national record in skeet
All six Indian shooters, including two-time Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan, drew a blank in skeet events.
Shooting
Indian shooter Ganemat Sekhon scored 120 in the women’s skeet qualifying round of the ISSF World Cup Shotgun Lonato 2023 for a new national record on Wednesday.
However, all six Indian skeet shooters competing on the day failed to win a medal at the Trap Concaverde Shooting Range in Italy.
Ganemat Sekhon, who won a silver medal in the women’s individual skeet events at the ISSF World Cup in Almaty in May, shot a perfect round of 25 but finished seventh and missed out on a place in the six-woman final.
The Indian shooter had two rounds of 23 over the previous two days which contributed to her early exit at the Paris 2024 Olympics qualifying event.
Dania Jo Vizzi of the USA claimed the sixth and final spot with a score of 121 in the qualifying round and went on to win the gold medal, defeating her compatriot Samantha Simonton 54-50 in the final. The People's Republic of China’s Jiang Yiting won bronze.
Maheshwari Chauhan and Darshna Rathore, the other two Indians in the women’s skeet field, shot 114 and 104 to finish 32nd and 58th, respectively.
In the men’s skeet, Anant Jeet Singh Naruka shot 119 for 48th place in a huge field of 158. Tokyo Olympics silver medalist Jesper Hensen of Denmark topped the field with a perfect 125.
Reigning world champion Azmy Mehelba of Egypt and reigning Olympic champion Vincent Hancock of the USA, who took out Rio 2016 champion Gabrielle Rossetti of Italy in a shoot-off, also made the finals with scores of 123.
India’s Gurjoat Khangura and two-time Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan shot scores of 116 and 112 to end in the 69th and 96th positions, respectively.
Ganemat Sekhon-Anant Jeet Singh Naruka and Gurjoat Khangura-Darshna will be in action in the mixed skeet event on Thursday.