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India’s oldest member in the shooting contingent for ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Mairaj Ahmad Khan, scripted history on Monday as the 46-year-old clinched the gold medal in the men's skeet shooting event. Mairaj finished ahead of Korea’s Minsu Kim (36) and Britain's Ben Llewellin (26), who won the silver and bronze respectively. The Indian shooter shot 37 in the 40-shot final to claim the top position.
The 46-year-old shooter from Uttar Pradesh had shot 119/125 over two days of qualifying before coming through in a five-way shoot-off en route to his maiden individual gold. 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.
When Shotaro Toguchi of Japan missed his eighth shoot-off shot, he was assured of a top-eight spot. In the ranking round, he was up against German Sven Korte, Korean Minki Cho, and Cypriot Nicolas Vasilou for another round of 30 targets. He topped the round with 27 hits as Sven followed him to the medal round with 25 hits.
With the top finish in the final, Mairaj Ahmad Khan upgraded his silver from the 2016 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro to gold in Changwon.
Anjum Moudgil, Ashi Chouksey, and Sift Kaur Samra win bronze
While Mairaj Ahmad Khan made headlines with his gold medal in the men’s skeet event, the trio of Anjum Moudgil, Ashi Chouksey, and Sift Kaur Samra won bronze in the women's 50m rifle 3P team event. 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.
In other results, 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. Vijayveer shot 584 in qualifying to finish sixth while Anish shot 582 for the 12th spot and Sameer 566 for the 30th position.