Shooting
Shotgun World Cup: Mairaj/Ganemat win gold in Skeet Mixed Team
The duo of Mairaj Khan and Ganemat Sekhon clinched the gold medal at the Shotgun World Cup in Cairo.
Ganemat Sekhon and Mairaj Khan after winning gold at the Cairo Shotgun World Cup. (Source: NRAI/Twitter)
Mairaj Khan and Ganemat Sekhon clinched the gold in the Skeet Mixed Team event at the Shotgun World Cup in Cairo, Egypt on Sunday. The Indian duo defeated Mexico's Luis Gallardo and Gabriela Rodriguez 6-0 in the final.
This medal is India's first in the ongoing ISSF World Cup, scheduled to go on till May 5. As it stands, Italy leads the medal tally with four medals (1+2+1), followed by China and India, both of whom have a single gold medal.
Mairaj, who won his fifth senior ISSF medal on the day, was in brilliant form in the 30-team qualification round shooting 74/75 to help the Indian duo shoot a combined 143 out of 150. That helped them reach the title decider in the top position after they won a shoot-off with the Mexicans 4-3, as the latter had also finished with a score of 143.
In the decider, Mairaj again set the ball rolling with a perfect four-hits which was complimented by Ganemat as the Mexicans missed three birds to give India a 2-0 lead. Mairaj repeated a perfect four in the second series and even though Ganemat missed a couple, the Mexicans again missed three as India pulled through 4-0.
The final series became a bit more open when Mairaj missed two targets and Ganemat one, but the Mexicans missed four in all to hand India the gold by a comprehensive margin.
“I was very confident when I started. We knew from the beginning of the day that we would win gold today. We are preparing for the Paris Olympics,” said a confident Mairaj after the victory.
Ganemat also spoke of “redemption” after the Indians, including Mairaj and herself, had drawn a blank in the individual skeet competitions. It was a fourth senior world cup medal for Ganemat as well, including a second gold in the Mixed Team event.
In the individual events, it was a mixed-bag of results for both of the aforementioned Indians. As for Mairaj, he was languishing down in the 57th position of the leaderboard after all rounds of qualification, with a total of 113 points.
On the other hand, Ganemat excelled in the qualification rounds and finished third on the leaderboard, thereby making it to the ranking match in Skeet women's event. However, she couldn't make it out of the ranking match with her measly total of 9.
