Indian skeet shooters miss individual medal rounds, finish outside team podium

Doha: The seasoned Indian men's and women's skeet shooters endured a disappointing outing at the ISSF World Championships here on Friday, missing out on the individual medal rounds and finishing outside the medal positions in the team events.

Their hopes of securing a quota place for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics also ended without success.

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A day after Jaypal Malviya clinched a silver medal in the men's 10m air pistol event to secure an Olympic quota for India and provide some cheer after a difficult run of results, the skeet shooters were unable to make much of an impact.

Leading the men's challenge was 51-year-old Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan, who has more than three decades of experience in the sport. He shot 118 out of 125 across five rounds of 25 shots each to finish 46th in a field of 113 shooters.

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Anantjeet Singh Naruka, who won a medal at this year's Asian Games in Japan, and Bhavtegh Singh Gill fared marginally better, both shooting 119 to finish 25th and 24th, respectively. India's combined score of 356 earned the men's team the sixth place.

The Indian women also fell short of the individual medal round. Ganemat Sekhon was the best-placed Indian, finishing 13th with a score of 118. Parinaaz Dhaliwal shot 115 to finish 23rd, while Raiza Dhillon managed 114 for 32nd place.

The trio aggregated 347 to secure fifth place in the women's team competition.

Air pistol mixed teams too fail to make the cut

India's air pistol mixed teams also endured a disappointing outing, with both combinations failing to make the final after finishing well down the qualification standings.

Suruchi Inder Singh, who had teamed up with a different partner to win the Asian Games gold in the event a month ago, could not replicate that success as she and Malviya finished 21st with a combined score of 574. Both shooters returned identical scores of 287.

The other Indian combination of Sainyam (287) and Ravin Kumar (285) fared no better, finishing 27th with a total of 572.

Only the top four teams advance to the final and remain in contention for the medals.