Raiza wins skeet silver at Junior Shooting World Cup

Suhl (Germany), May 22 (PTI) Olympian Raiza Dhillon delivered in challenging conditions to win the silver medal in the women's skeet event at the ISSF Junior World Cup here on Thursday.

The Indian struck 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 plays out her last junior year.

It was also India's third medal in the prestigious tournament and second silver to go with Kanak's gold on Wednesday in the women's air pistol.

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 okay but today was really cold and windy," said Raiza after the final.

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 Nember of Italy, as Raiza assured India of a medal with 32 hits in the first 40 targets.

Eyeing 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 will 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. PTI AH AH AH