Akhil Sheoran won bronze in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions (3P), his first World Cup final medal, and Ganemat Sekhon set a new national record in women’s skeet on day two of the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Final Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun New Delhi 2024.
Akhil’s effort meant India now has two medals in the annual ISSF season-ender with one more competition day left, given Sonam Uttam Maskar snared the women’s air rifle silver on day one.
Super effort from Akhil in 50m rifle 3P
Earlier in the day, Akhil 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 spots at the end of the first 15-kneeling position shots of the 45-shot final, however, Akhil 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.
Akhil came into his own in his strong Standing position, shooting mid to high 10s consistently, and as Chain bowed out in seventh after the 40th, 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 for his 41st and Liu fell short of Akhil by 0.2 after the 42nd as the Indian secured the coveted medal with a 10.7 and a 10.4. He settled for bronze as, despite a solid 10.7 for his 43rd, the gap of 0.9 with Privratsky was too much to make up.
Ganemat smashes national record.
Skeet shooter Ganemat Sekhon, marched to her second successive World Cup final smashing the national record en route. Her scintillating qualification score of 122 over two days, bettered her mark by two.
She 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 124.
Other Indians who qualified for finals in Shotgun events, all four of which are scheduled on the final day on Thursday, were Vivaan Kapoor (120, 3rd place) in the men’s trap and Anantjeet Singh Naruka (121, 5th) and Mairaj Ahmad Khan (119, 6th) in the men’s skeet.
Both Maheshwari Chauhan in the women’s skeet and Bhowneesh Mendiratta in the men’s trap finished eighth with a score of 117 in the qualifiers.