Shooter Mairaj Khan bags India’s first-ever skeet medal at World Cup

Mairaj, who qualified for the Rio Olympics after finishing seventh in the World Championship in Lonato, Italy, last year, scored 122 points out of a possible 125 in the qualification round to enter the semi-final in second place. Mairaj and Marcus Svensson of Sweden hit all the 15 semi-final targets to go into the gold medal match.

The duo continued their deadlock as they hit 14 out of the possible 16 targets to take the match into a shoot-off. In the subsequent tie-breaking shoot-off, Mairaj missed his very first double and settled for a silver to give Marcus Svensson his first-ever gold. Italy’s Cassandro Tammaro won the bronze medal after hitting 16 targets in the bronze medal match.

Sheeraz Sheikh and Man Singh were the other Indians in the fray, and they finished 18th and 49th respectively in the qualification round. Sunday was the last day of the ISSF World Cup, which also acted as the test event for the Rio Olympics.