Indian men's Skeet team fail to reach final round in Shotgun World Cup

The Indian mens Skeet trio of Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Sheeraz Sheikh finished outside the final rounds of the ongoing shooting World Cup for Shotgun here.

This is the third and final World Cup stage for Shotgun before the athletes move on to the Shotgun World Championships to be held in August in Moscow.

Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan, India's only ever World Cup stage medallist in Skeet and India's best bet in the 94-strong field, shot a score of 120 out of 125 to end in 22nd spot.

Mairaj was well placed to qualify for the six-man Final round after the fourth series of 25 targets, with a score of 98 out of a possible 100. But three misses in the fifth and final series saw him slide down dramatically in a tough field where three of the six qualifiers made it with a high-score of 122.

Mairaj improved upon his first World Cup Stage score in New Delhi by one point but will have to wait till the World Championships now to qualify for his home World Cup Finals in October.

Youngster Angad Bajwa shot 118, to match his score from the second World Cup stage in Acapulco, to finish in 31st place. Sheeraz Sheikh, the third Indian in the fray, shot 109 to finish in 77th place.

On Tuesday, three Indians will compete in the men's Double Trap, the third competition day of the World Cup.

Ankur Mittal will attempt to defend his second stage Acapulco World Cup Gold in the company of youngster Shapath Bharadwaj and Sangram Dahiya. Ankur has been in splendid form this season bagging a gold and a silver in the two World Cup stages held so far.

China had won the inaugural women's Skeet gold on day one with the US winning silver and Thailand the bronze.

--IANS

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