An individual medal continued to elude Sheeraz Sheikh as he was positioned fourth in men’s skeet in the Asian Shotgun Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Saturday.
Qualifying with the second best score of 118 in testing conditions, Sheeraz had to endure the shoot-off to ensure his place in the final, while Olympian Mairaz Ahmad Khan who also went through the tie-shoot missed out.
After shooting rounds of 24 and 25 in the morning to make the final, which looked difficult after he had missed six birds in three rounds on the opening day’s competition, Sheeraz shot 33 in the final. He had shot a high score of 121 in the last Asian championship and finished fifth. He had won the junior bronze in the Asian championship in 2008, in Jaipur.
Along with Mairaj and Angad Vir Singh Bajwa (111), Sheeraz was able to strike the team bronze, seven points ahead of Japan.
With an aggregate score of 347, India was three points behind Kuwait and Kazakhstan which won the gold and silver respectively, after the tie was broken on the count back.
The best skeet shooter of the country, Mairaj, who had won the World Cup silver in Rio and had placed fourth in the World Cup Final in Rome last year, had recovered from rounds of 22, 22 with a series of 25, 25 and 24, like Sheeraz, but was unlucky to narrowly miss out on a berth in the final.
Even though he was not of matching calibre, the young Angad fought back well this morning with rounds of 25 and 22, but had conceded far too much ground the previous day by dropping 11 birds.
Saif Bin Futtais of the UAE won the gold, as he beat Alexandr Yechshenko of Kazakhstan 53-49, leaving Makoto Yokouchi of Japan with the bronze.
The results:
Skeet: 1. Saif Bin Futtais (UAE) 53 (119); 2. Alexandr Yechshenko (Kaz) 49 (118)8; 3. Makoto Yokouchi (Jpn) 41 (118)8; 4. Sheeraz Sheikh 33 (118)8; 7. Mairaj Ahmad Khan 118(7); 18. Angad Vir Singh Bajwa 111.
Team: 1. Kuwait 350; 2. Kazakhtan 350; 3. India 347.
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