Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Rashmmi Rathore beat Jiangchi Liu and Jinmei Gao of China 28-27 for the gold medal in mixed skeet in the Asian Shotgun Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Sunday.
It was an impressive climax for the Indian shotgun team, which had consistently won medals in all the events, including women’s skeet. Mairaj and Rashmmi had earlier topped the semifinals with the same score, ahead of Kazakhstan and another Chinese team.
In the qualification stage, the Indian pair had shot 93, to make the semifinals in the fifth spot behind two teams each from Kazakhstan and China. The other Indian team of Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Maheshwari Chauhan shot 92 to tie for the last berth in the semifinals with two teams of Kuwait, one of which pulled through.
After having faltered in the individual event in different ways, it was a good recovery for both Mairaj and Rashmmi. It should augur well for the Indian team as it gets ready for the World Shotgun Championship in Moscow from August 31.
Even though only trap mixed event along with air pistol and air rifle have been included in the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, the World Championship in shotgun will also feature mixed skeet event.
The results
Mixed skeet: 1. India (Mairaj Ahmad Khan, Rashmmi Rathore) 28 (28) 93(3); 2. China (Jiangchi Liu, Jinmei Gao) 27 (29) 93(4); 3. Kazakhstan (Vladislav Mukhamediyev, Olga Panarina) 27 (27) 95; 4. Kazakhstan-2 (Alexandr Yechshenko, Assem Orynbay) 24 (25) 96; 7. India -1 (Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, Maheshwari Chauhan) 92(1).
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