Mairaj Ahmad Khan snatches skeet gold

Olympian and World Cup gold medallist Mairaj Ahmad Khan asserted his class yet again as he accelerated to a smart finish in grabbing the skeet gold in the Digvijay Singh shotgun championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Sunday.

The 46-year-old Mairaj beat Arjun Thakur 35-30 for the gold, as he missed only one bird in the medal round. He had qualified on top in the semifinal with 27 hits, after having made the final with a modest score of 115, six point behind qualification topper Gurjoat Khangura.

‘’Final and semifinal are great. I am going to work only on qualification for the next three months’’, said Mairaj, understandably happy about the way he had competed despite not being at his best.

It was a similar case during the last World Cup in Changwon, when Mairaj had to win a shoot off with four others after being tied on 119 for the last two berths, before racing to the gold.

Anantjeet Singh Naruka who had shot 120 in qualification lost the shoot off against Amrinder Singh Cheema for a berth in the medal round.

It was Raiza Dhillon all the way as she won both the women’s and junior gold. Raiza beat qualification topper Ganemat Sekhon 36-35 for the women’s gold, and beat Parinaaz Dhaliwal 33-32 for the junior gold.

Darshna Rathore had a chance to fight for gold but missed the last two birds and thus had to settle for the bronze.

The results:

Skeet: Men: 1. Mairaj Ahamed Khan 35 (27) 115; 2. Arjun Thakur 30 (27) 119; 3. Gurjoat Khangura 24 (29) 121; 4. Amrinder Singh Cheema 15 (24) 113.

Juniors: 1. Harmehar Singh Lally 28 (25) 112; 2. Bhavtegh Singh Gill 23 (25) 113; 3. Rajveer Singh Gill 19 (26) 112; 4. Abhay Singh Sekhon 14 (26) 116.

Women: 1. Raiza Dhillon 36 (25) 113; 2. Ganemat Sekhon 35 (27) 118; 3. Darshna Rathore 26 (22) 109; 4. Zahra Mufaddal Deesawala 11 (21) 112.

Juniors: 1. Raiza Dhillon 33 (23) 113; 2. Parinaaz Dhaliwal 32 (23) 109; 3. Darshna Rathore 24 (28) 109; 4. Sanjana Sood 14 (26) 113.