Ganemat Sekhon won silver, while Darshna Rathore won bronze, as India for the first time won two senior individual medals in women’s skeet at an International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup stage.
Local favourite Assem Orynbay of Kazakhstan won gold through a shoot-off after both Ganemat and she ended the 60-shot final with 50 hits each. Ganemat missed one of the first two shoot-off targets after Orynbay had shot both down. It was Ganemat’s second-ever individual world cup medal and a first-ever for Darshna, who appeared in her first-ever senior final.
Earlier on competition day two of the ISSF World Cup Shotgun in Almaty, Darshna qualified for the six-woman final in second place, equaling the national record with a score of 120, while Ganemat was fourth, shooting 117. Orynbay topped with 121, while among the other qualifiers was world number 10 from Cyprus, Konstantina Nikolaou.
The Cypriot, however, was the only shooter to miss three of her first four targets in the final, while the other five missed one each. At the end of the first 10 targets, Orynbay was the most accurate with eight hits, with four others, including Darshna and Ganemat, following with seven.
Nikolaou was the first to be eliminated after 20 targets as Ganemat and Barbora continued to chase the Kazakh Orynbay, with Darshna trying to catch up. After 30 hits, the field was down to four, with Ganemat leading with 25, followed by Orynbay with 24, and Darshna and Barbora tied at 22. It was heartening to see the two Indians, in particular Ganemat, getting stronger as the match progressed. The Czech was next to fall at the 40-target mark with 29 to her name, confirming a historic double medal for the Indians. Then Darshna bowed out with 39 hits, and Ganemat and Orynbay had to be eventually separated through a shoot-off. The third Indian in the field, Maheshwari Chauhan, ended 24th with a score of 108 in qualification. In the men’s skeet, none of the three Indians made the finals. Mairaj Khan was the best finisher with 119 for a 16th-place finish, while Gurjoat Khangura shot the same score to finish 18th. Anantjeet Singh Naruka was further back with a score of 118.