ISSF World Cup: Historic silver-bronze finish for Ganemat Sekhon and Darshna Rathore

NEW DELHI, May 23
Indian women's skeet shooters Ganemat Sekhon and Darshna Rathore created history on Tuesday, securing silver and bronze medals at the ISSF World Cup in Almaty. This marked the first time Indian skeet shooters have won two senior individual medals at the event.
The gold medal went to the local favorite, Assem Orynbay of Kazakhstan, who clinched victory in a thrilling shoot-off. Both Ganemat and Orynbay had finished the 60-shot final with 50 hits each.
During the shoot-off, Ganemat missed one out of the first two targets, while Orynbay successfully hit both. The setback prevented Ganemat from securing the gold medal.
The silver is now Ganemat's second individual world cup medal. For Darshna, it is a remarkable milestone as she made her debut in the senior final and claimed her first-ever world cup medal.
Earlier on competition day two, Darshna qualified for the six-woman final in second spot, equalling the national record with a score of 120 while Ganemat was fourth, shooting 117.
Orynbay topped with 121 while among the other qualifiers was world number 10 from Cyprus, Konstantina Nikolaou.
The Cypriot however was the only shooter to miss three of her first four targets in the final, while the other five missed one each. At the end of the first 10 targets Orynbay was the most accurate with eight hits with four others including Darshna and Ganemat following with seven.
Nikolaou was the first to be eliminated after 20 targets as Ganemat and Barbora continued to chase the Kazakh Orynbay, with Darshna trying to catch up.
After 30 hits, the field was down to four with Ganemat leading with 25, followed by Orynbay with 24 and Darshna and Barbora tied at 22.
It was heartening to see the two Indians, in particular Ganemat, getting stronger as the match progressed. The Czech was next to fall at the 40-target mark with 29 to her name, confirming a historic double for the Indians.
Then Darshna bowed out with 39 hits and Ganemat and Orynbay had to be eventually separated through a shoot-off. The third Indian in the field, Maheshwari Chauhan, ended 24th with a score of 108 in qualification.
In the men's skeet, none of the three Indians made the finals. Mairaj Khan was the best finisher with 119 for a 16th-place finish, while Gurjoat Khangura shot the same score to finish 18th. Anantjeet Singh Naruka was further back with 118. PTI