Jr Shooting World Cup: Raiza wins skeet silver as India extend medal-a-day streak

New Delhi, May 22 (IANS) Olympian Raiza Dhillon delivered under challenging and tricky conditions to win a silver medal in the women’s skeet event at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, on Thursday.

The Indian shot 51 targets in the 60-shot final, to finish behind Phoebe Bodley-Scott of Great Britain, who shot 53. Home favourite Annabella Hettmer won bronze.

Raiza’s effort saw her win her first individual ISSF World Cup medal at any level as she played out her last junior year. It was also India’s third medal of the prestigious Suhl Junior World Cup and the second silver to go with Kanak’s gold on Wednesday in the women’s air pistol.

Classy effort

Raiza had quite a bit of work to do in the day, beginning in fourth place with a score of 71 after three rounds of qualifying. She shot rounds of 22 and 23 to eventually qualify second.

Crucially, what confirmed the second place was not the tally of 116 that she had conjured over five rounds, but coming up trumps after a three-way 24-shot shoot-off between Phoebe, Hettmer, and herself.

She took that confidence into the final, to begin with four clean hits on the first Station 3, and was slotted in second behind Phoebe after the first 10 targets with one miss to her name.

“Yesterday was ok, but today was really cold and windy,” said Raiza after the final, and as conditions started to become really tricky, misses started happening all around.

Lidiya Basharova of Kazakhstan was the first to be eliminated after 20 targets and next to go was reigning junior world champion Madeleine Russell of Britain, followed by reigning junior European champion Arianna Member of Italy, as Raiza assured the nation of a medal with 32 hits in the first 40 targets.

With eyes on gold, she struck down 19 out of the next 20 targets, but the lead of three that Phoebe had taken into the final 10 targets could only be brought down by one as Raiza settled for silver.

“Yes, it’s nice to have an ISSF World Cup medal. After changing my technique before the Olympics and settling down to it only after them, I knew results would come. I reached the final at the Peru Senior World Cup and took that confidence here. I now have my sights set on the next Lonato World Cup,” she signed off.

Other Indian scores on the day:

Women’s Skeet

Vanshika Tiwari: 22, 23 21 20 23 (109)-15th

Yashasvi Rathore: 22, 22, 22, 20, 20 (106)-19th

Mohika Sisidiya: 19,18,20,22,21(100)-28th

Men’s Skeet

Harmehar Lally: 24,22,22,24,25 (117)- 7th

Zoravar Singh Bedi: 23,22,22,22,23 (112)- 29th

Ishaan Singh Libra: 25,22,22,20,22 (11)- 35th

Jyotiraditya Sisodiya: 20,23,23,21,23 (110)- 38th

Atul Singh Rajawat: 22,20,22,22,19 (105)- 54th

10m Air Pistol Mixed Team

Urva Chaudhary/Chirag Sharma: 576-5th

Pushpender Singh/Sanskriti Bana: 560- 21st

50m Rifle 3 Positions

Adriyan Karmakar-589

Vedant Nitin Waghmare-587

Manvendra Singh Shekhawat-577

Harshvardhan Singh Naruka-572

Rohit Kanyan-560 (eliminated)

--IANS

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