Cairo: Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Ganemat Sekhon secured India’s first gold medal at the 2023 International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) Shotgun World Cup in Cairo after dominating the skeet mixed team final on Sunday.
In the gold medal match, following the 30-team qualification round, the Indian pair achieved a remarkable 6-0 victory over their Mexican opponents Luis Raul Gallardo Oliveros and Gabriela Rodriguez, who finished second on the podium.
Mairaj didn’t miss a single bird in his first two rounds, but missed two in the third, while his teammate Ganemat began with a perfect round, and missed one in the second and two in the third. They maintained the upper hand in all three series over Oliveros and Rodriguez.
“I think it’s a good start. We have a very dedicated and hardworking team of skeet shooters. I hope that we can reach the skeet mixed team final in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games as well,” Mairaj, 47, told Xinhua.
The two-time Olympian mentioned he also won an individual gold medal in skeet last year at the ISSF World Cup in South Korea.
“The teamwork is always there. All the athletes and staff are comfortable with and supportive of each other, including the coaches, the high-performance team, and the physio,” he added.
This is the second mixed team gold for 22-year-old Ganemat, who earned her first at the 2021 ISSF World Cup in New Delhi.
“My partner and I were positive about today, so we came in confidently. We worked very hard for this, training for four to five hours every day even before the championship,” Ganemat told Xinhua.
American-Australian coach Lauryn Mark, the Indian team’s high-performance manager, described her shooters as “a very talented team.”
“It’s great to work with a team that is working hard together and pushing each other constantly to improve,” she said.
“Everything we’re doing now is to build the team to win the quotas and, of course, have a strong lead into the Olympic Games,” the former skeet shooter told Xinhua.
The Italian duo of two-time World Championships silver medalist Simona Scocchetti and Rio Olympics champion Gabriele Rossetti claimed the bronze medal.
Held in Cairo from April 25 to May 5, the 2023 ISSF Shotgun World Cup has attracted more than 450 shooters from around the world.
