Mairaj Ahmad Khan wins Men’s Skeet gold at Changwon World Cup


Mairaj Ahmad Khan wins Men’s Skeet gold at Changwon World Cup

Two-time Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan put on a splendid performance to win the Men’s Skeet individual gold at the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Changwon, South Korea.

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Mairaj topped his ranking round with a score of 27 after finishing eighth in qualifications with 119. He had narrowly qualified after prevailing in a tie-break shoot-off that included Olympic bronze medalist Abdullah Al-Rashidi among others.

He then led through most of the medal match, missing only three targets to finish with a score of 37, a point ahead of Korean silver medalist Kim Minsu. Great Britain’s Ben Llewellin finished third. Al-Rashidi and Olympic finalists Eric Delaunay and Georgios Achilleos were among the names that could not qualify for the ranking rounds.

This is the first ISSF World Cup gold of Mairaj’s career and his first medal since winning a silver at the Rio World Cup in 2016. The gold will also give a confidence boost to an Indian shotgun squad that has historically struggled to achieve podium finishes at international competitions.

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In the Women’s Skeet medal match, Lucie Anastassiou of France won gold after defeating GBR’s Amber Hill in a close shoot-off. Italy’s Chiara Di Marziantonio won bronze.

Vijayveer misses out in 25m RFP

Vijayveer Sidhu was eliminated in third place in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol ranking round after losing a shoot-off to eventual gold medalist Dai Yoshioka of Japan. Yoshioka defeated Olympic champion Jean Quiquampoix to win gold while Lee Jaekyoon of Korea won bronze.

Vijayveer had qualified in fourth place with a score of 584. Peter Florian, who finished fourth in the medal match, had topped competitive qualifications with 589. The cut-off was 582. Anish Bhanwala narrowly missed out on qualifying while Sameer finished 30th with 566.

Women’s 50m Rifle 3P team wins bronze

Anjum Moudgil added another bronze to her collection after she along with teammates Ashi Chouksey and Sift Kaur Samra defeated Austria 16-6 in the Women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions bronze medal match.

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India had finished third out of eight teams in qualifications with a score of 872-39x. In the gold medal match, Germany defeated hosts Korea by a score of 17-11.

After Mairaj’s gold, India are on top of the medal tally with 13 medals including 5 golds, 5 silvers and 3 bronzes. Korea are second with 3 golds.