No Indian makes skeet finals as USA dominate Shotgun World Championship

Athens, Oct 12 (PTI) None of the Indian shooters could make the individual finals in either the men's or women's skeet events at the ISSF World Championship for Shotgun, here on Sunday.

In the women's skeet event, Olympian Raiza Dhillon was the best-placed Indian, finishing 16th among 58 shooters with a score of 116 out of 125, three points short of the cut-off mark of 119 required to make the six-shooter final.

Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Ganemat Sekhon shot identical scores of 110 each to end 44th and 47th respectively, as India finished eighth in the team standings out of 12 participating nations.

The day belonged to the United States, as world No.1 Samantha Simonton and four-time Olympic champion Vincent Hancock claimed the women's and men's skeet world championship titles respectively, leading to a remarkable clean sweep of all four skeet gold medals for Team USA, with the men and women team golds also going to them.

In the women's skeet final, Simonton shot 57 to take gold ahead of Mexico's Gabriela Rodriguez, who secured silver with 54 hits, while Sweden's Victoria Larsson clinched bronze with 44.

Earlier in the qualification round, Simonton had topped the field with 122 hits, followed by Rodriguez on 120 (+8 in shoot-off) and Larsson, who claimed the sixth and final qualification spot with 119 (+3), edging out veteran Kimberly Rhode and Slovakia's Vanesa Hockova.

In the men's skeet event, Bhavtegh Singh Gill shot 119 out of 125 to finish 38th in a strong field of 116 competitors.

Seasoned campaigner Mairaj Ahmad Khan was placed 53rd with a score of 117, while Anant Jeet Singh Naruka returned a tally of 115 to end 83rd.

The cut-off for the men's final stood at 122.

India's men's team finished 16th among 27 nations in the team classification.

Vincent Hancock shot 59 in the final to claim his fifth individual World Championship gold.

Czechia's Daniel Korcak won silver with 55, while Denmark's Emil Kjeldgaard Petersen took bronze 45.

Hancock had earlier topped qualification with 124 out of 125 hits.

Team USA also claimed men's team gold with 365 hits, followed by Italy (363) and hosts Greece (361). India were placed 16th with a combined score of 351. PTI TAP AT TAP SSC SSC