Shooting World Cup: Ganemat Sekhon finishes sixth in skeet in Lonato

New Delhi: Ganemat Sekhon reached the final only to finish sixth in Women’s Skeet even as none of the men in contention made the top-six cut on the penultimate day of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Shotgun in Lonato, Italy. Ganemat only managed 16 hits out of the first 20 in the 60-shot final, to be the first finalist to be eliminated. Rio Olympic champion Diana Bacosi won gold with 57 hits.

Ganemat had earlier in the day shot a perfect 25 for her fifth and final qualification round for a total of 120 over five rounds. That tied her with three others for the final three qualification spots. A shoot-off ensued and Ganemat shot the first three to clinch the sixth spot at the expense of Peru’s Daniella Borda.

The Indian shooter then began the final well, gunning down all four targets on the first station, along with Dania Jo Vizzi of the USA and the champ Diana.

However, she then got seven of the first 10 and that put her back, particularly given she had qualified sixth. She missed just one of the next 10, but it was not enough to help her progress further.

Also in the Women’s Skeet, Maheshwari Chauhan (114) finished 30th and Raiza Dhillon (111) took the 39th spot.

In Men’s Skeet, Sheeraz Sheikh (120) and Anantjeet Singh Naruka (120) shot identical scores to finish in the 30th and 31st spots. Mairaj Ahmad Khan was 79th with a tally of 113.