Shoot-off denies skeet gold for Raiza Dhillon in Junior World Championship

Silver lining: The 19-year-old’s final performance is creditable after a modest sixth-place finish in the qualifying round. 
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Raiza Dhillon missed the gold in the women’s skeet final shoot-off after being tied on 51 hits with Miroslava Hockova of Slovakia in the Junior World Championship in Changwon, Korea, on Tuesday.

It was a commendable effort from the 19-year-old Raiza after qualifying for the final in the sixth place with a modest score of 110. She overcame a bad start in the final to stay in contention for the gold before being beaten 2-1 by the Slovak.

It was the second World Championship medal for Raiza after her team gold last year.

There was a gold medal for India through the air rifle trio of Abhinav Shaw, Dhanush Srikanth and Parth Mane. However, it was left to Umamahesh Maddineni to win the individual bronze behind Romain Aufrere of France and Wang Honghao of China. Qualification topper Abhinav Shaw (631.4) placed fourth.

The women’s air rifle team of Sonam Maskar, Gautami Bhanot and Swati Chowdhury won the team silver behind China which had a world record score of 1892.0.

India was second on the medals table with four gold, three silver and three bronze. China was ahead by two additional silver medals.

The results: 10m air rifle: Junior men: 1. Romain Aufrere (Fra) 251.2 (627.7); 2. Wang Honghao (Chn) 251.0 (628.6); 3. Umamahesh Maddineni 229.0 (627.9); 4. Abhinav Shaw 207.2 (631.4); 6. Dhanush Srikanth 164.9 (629.9); 17. Parth Mane 625.4; 20. Srinjoy Datta 624.9; 38. Sheersh Kashyap 620.4.

Team: 1. India (Abhinav Shaw, Dhanush Srikanth, Parth Mane) 1886.7; 2. China 1883.5; 3. Korea 1873.9.

Junior women: 1. Synnoeve Berg (Nor) 251.8 (631.9); 2. Wang Zifei (Chn) 251.3 (632.6); 3. Jiao Ruoxuan (Chn) 229.7 (632.9); 7. Sonam Maskar 144.8 (630.6); 11. Gautami Bhanot 630.6; 18. Isha Taksale 628.4; 36. Hazel 625.8; 37. Swati Chowdhury 625.6; 83. Devanshi Katara 616.0.

Team: 1. China 1892.0 (WRJ); 2. India (Sonam Maskar, Gautami Bhanot, Swati Chowdhury) 1886.8; 3. Norway 1883.8.

Skeet: Junior men: 1. Benjamin Keller (USA) 54 (7) 123; 2. Kontopoulos Markos (Cyp) 54 (5) 118; 2. Andrea Galardini (Ita) 42 (122); 5. Harmehar Singh Lally 24 (119); 12. Bhavtegh Gill 115; 13. Munek Battula 1155; 32. Ritu Raj Bundela 107; 39. Gurfatesh Sandhu 99.

Team: 1. Italy 350; 2. USA 349; 3. Cyprus 348; 5. India 341.

Junior women: 1. Miroslava Hockova (Svk) 51 (2) 116; 2. Raiza Dhillon 51(1) 110; 3. Alisha Layne (USA) 41 (114); 20. Sanjana Sood 104; 25. Muffaddal Deesawala 97.

Team: 1. Slovakia 330; 2. Italy 328; 3. USA 327; 6. India 311.