Marvelous Mairaj Khan makes history

Khan clinches India’s first ever World Cup gold in men’s skeet at Changwon

Veteran Indian shooter Mairaj Ahmed Khan on Monday created history by winning the country’s first-ever ISSF World Cup gold medal in men’s skeet here.

In the 40-shot final, Khan, 46, from Uttar Pradesh shot 37 to finish ahead of Korea’s Minsu Kim (36) and Britain’s Ben Llewellin (26), who won the silver and bronze respectively.

The shooter shot 119/125 over two days of qualifying before coming through in a five-way shoot-off enroute his maiden individual gold. The two-time Olympian, who is the oldest member of the Indian contingent in Changwon this year, had won a silver at the 2016 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.

Women bag bronze 

Earlier in the day, the trio of Anjum Moudgil, Ashi Chouksey, and Sift Kaur Samra won bronze in the women’s 50m rifle 3P team event.

Also Read: India top medal tally with 3 gold, 4 silver, 1 bronze in Shooting World Cup

The Indians outplayed the Austrian team of Sheileen Waibel, Nadine Ungerank, and Rebecca Koeck 16-6 in the bronze medal match to comfortably secure a podium finish. 

But the day undoubtedly belonged to Khan. After finishing with 119, he found himself vying for two final qualification spots along with four others, including two-time Olympic medallist Abdullah Al Rashidi of Kuwait. With one gold and bronze on Monday, India remained on top of the medal tally with 13 podiums (5 gold, 5 silver, and 3 bronze). 

Pistol men struggle

Meanwhile. in other results on Tuesday, India’s Vijayveer Sidhu made the ranking round, but failed to advance to the medal rounds while Anish and Sameer could not cross the first hurdle in the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol. 

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