Shotgun World Cup: India's skeet shooters in line for medals in team events

Cairo: Indian skeet shooters, including Olympic quota holders Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, were in line for medals in the team events at the Shotgun World Cup here. On Wednesday, both the men’s and women’s three-member teams ended the first three qualification rounds in medal-winning positions, with two more qualification rounds to go before the finals. Mairaj and Angad shot scores of 70 and 67 each to end in 21st and 28th positions, respectively, in the individual competition. Gurjot Khangura, the third Indian in the fray, got ahead of them in 19th place, matching Mairaj’s score. Their combined effort of 207 put them in the fourth spot for the moment in the men’s team event. The women’s team, comprising Karttiki Singh Shaktawat, Parinaaz Dhaliwal, and Ganemat Shekhon, ended day one in third place behind Russia and Kazakhstan after producing a combined score of 188. In the women’s skeet individual competition, Karttiki was best placed in the 27th spot with a score of 64 out of 75. Parinaaz and Ganemat were 28th and 29th respectively with identical scores of 62. The individual finals are slotted on Thursday, while the team finals are scheduled for Friday. The eight-day competition is the year’s first Shotgun World Cup stage and assumes additional significance given that this will be the final chance for the shooters to qualify for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics on the basis of world ranking points.