Men's Skeet team wins Bronze at 7th Asian Championship Shotgun

The Indian Men's Skeet Team, comprising of Sheeraz, Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, bagged Bronze on day six of the 7th Asian Championship Shotgun underway at Astana, Kazakhstan's Target Shooting Club.

India has so far won seven medals in the competition.

The Indian trio shot a combined score of 347 out of a possible 375 to finish behind host Kazakhstan, who won Silver with a combined effort of 350.

Team Kuwait won Gold after finishing with an identical score of 350, but edged out the hosts on better finishing round scores.

At the end of the first day of qualification in the Men's Skeet yesterday, Mairaj and Sheeraz were placed 9th and 10th respectively on identical scores of 69 out of 75 targets.

Angad Bajwa was at 23rd place with 64.

On Saturday, with two more rounds of qualification left, all three shot one perfect round of 25 each. Sheeraz and Mairaj also had an additional round of 24 to finish on 118. Three other shooters finished on the same score to go into a shoot-off to determine four finalists. Saif Bin Futtais of the UAE and Mansour Al Rashedi of Kuwait ended on 119 to secure the first two spots out of six.

Mairaj lost out in the tight shoot-off missing his 8th shot, while four others including Sheeraz, Ali Doosti of Iran, Makoto Yokouchi of Japan and Alexandr Yechshenko of Kazakhstan where on target in the first eight. Meanwhile Angad Bajwa's score of 25 and 22 on the day saw him improve his position and end in 18th spot.

In the final, which followed, Sheeraz survived the first phase where Mansour of Kuwait was eliminated in sixth place. In the second phase, Ali Doosti was eliminated in 5th place on a score of 24. Sheeraz went on to score 33, but bowed out in fourth place.

Bin Futtais of UAE eventually won Gold with a score of 53 in the final. Yechshenko of Kazakhstan won Silver, shooting 49 while Yokouchi of Japan won Bronze finishing on 41.

Competitions to the 7th Asian Championship Shotgun conclude on Sunday with the Mixed Team Skeet event.