ISSF World Cup Shotgun: Indian shooters Ganemat Sekhon and Darshna Rathore clinched historic silver-bronze

City-based young shooter Ganemat Sekhon won India's maiden silver while Darshna Rathore won bronze as India won two senior individual medals in women's skeet at the ISSF World Cup Shotgun stage for the first time on Tuesday.

Also Read: Slovenia Open Badminton: Sameer Verma wins gold after becoming the champion of the men's singles event

Meanwhile, local favorite Assem Orynbay of Kazakhstan won the gold medal via shoot-off after both wins and she shot 50-50 to finish the 60-shot final. Ganemat missed one of the first two shoot-off targets after Orynbay shot them both down. It was Ganemat's second ever individual World Cup medal and the first for Darshna who reached her first senior final. Earlier, on the second day of competition at the ISSF World Cup Shotgun, Almaty, Darshna qualified for the six women's finals in second place and equaled the national record with a score of 120. While Ganemat finished fourth with a score of 117. Cyprus's Nikolaou Konstantia was the world number 10 player.

However, the Nikolaou was the only shooter to miss three of her first four shots in the ISSF World Cup Shotgun final. While the other five missed one each. At the end of the first 10 targets, Orynbay was the most accurate with 8 hits, with Darshna and Ganemat including four others in seven. Nikolaou was the first player to be eliminated after 20 goals. After that, Ganemat and Sumova Barbora continued to chase down Kazakh's Orynbay, with Darshna trying to catch up. After a 30-hit run, Ganemat was bottom of the field with 25. While Orynbay was with 24 and Darshna and Barbora tied with 22.

It was heartening to see the two Indians, especially Ganemat, going from strength to strength as the match progressed. The Czech was about to fall at the 40-goal mark with 29 to his name, confirming a historic double medal for the Indians. Then Darshna was out with 39 hits and Ganemat and Orynbay eventually had to be separated through a shoot-off. Maheshwari Chauhan, the third Indian in the field, shot 108 in qualifying to finish 24th.

Also Read: World TT Championships: G Sathiyan reaches pre-quarterfinals of the men's and mixed doubles

However, in the men's skeet, none of the three Indians made it to the ISSF World Cup Shotgun finals. Mairaj Ahmad Khan was the best finisher with 119 for 16th place. While Gurjoat Khangura shot an identical score to finish 18th. Anantjeet Singh Naruka followed closely behind with a score of 118.