Ganemat wins shooting gold

Chandigarh born Ganemat Sekhon bagged gold, while Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon of Panchkula performed well to bag bronze in the ongoing 67th National Shooting Championship Competitions (NSCC) for shotgun events at Dr Karni Singh Shooting range in New Delhi.

On Tuesday, Chandigarh-born shooter, Ganemat underscored her supremacy in the women’s skeet shooting in India, clinching a second successive national title, with a confident display in the women individual final. She shot down 50 out of the 60 allotted final targets, to comfortably relegate state-mate Asees Chhina, who managed 46 hits to grab silver. Raiza claimed bronze. Young Bhavtegh Singh Gill, who was recently crowned World University champion, made a clean sweep for Punjab in the senior skeet competitions, bagging his maiden national title with a score of 54 in the men’s final. Fatehbir Singh Shergill of Air India won silver with a score of 51, while Olympian Mairaj Ahmad Khan of Uttar Pradesh bagged bronze with 43 hits out of the first 50 targets.

Earlier, Raiza, who was the youngest Indian member of the Paris Olympic squad, made to both the women’s skeet finals. She created a new national record and equalled another. Raiza’s score of 122 helped her top both the junior women’s and women’s qualification round. She was two points better than Simranpreet Kaur Johal’s junior record of 120— achieved in the 2018 Jaipur Nationals and equal to Ganemat Sekhon’s effort at the recently held ISSF World Cup Final, in Delhi.

She followed Raiza into the six-woman final in second spot with a tally of 118 hits over five rounds and two days of qualification. Madhya Pradesh’s Vanshika Tiwari and Rajasthan’s Yashasvi Rathore were among those who made to both the junior and senior women’s finals. Punjab also won three of the four gold medals in the team competitions, with Ganemat winning as part of their women’s team and Bhavtegh Gill and Harmehar Lally winning in both the junior and men’s team categories.