Sheeraz, Mairaj, Gurpreet start well in ISSF World Cup

Sheeraz Sheikh began his first round of qualification in the men's skeet with a perfect score of 25 to be on top of the standings while Mairaj Ahmed Khan was lying 22nd having shot two rounds of 24 and 22 each.

Mairaj Ahmad Khan was the first Indian to qualify for the skeet event at the Olympics.

Indian shooters Sheeraz Shaikh and Mairaj Ahmed Khan in men's skeet and Gurpreet Singh in men's rapid fire pistol got off to positive starts in their respective events on day eight of ISSF World Cup here.

Meanwhile, Croatian shooter Snjezana Pejcic broke the women's 50m rifle 3 positions world record en route to the gold medal at the Rio de Janeiro stage of the ISSF World Cup yesterday.

Pejcic set a new mark of 594 points in the qualifying round before posting 458.8 points in the medal match to beat Germany's Barbara Engleder by 3.2 points.

The competition is also serving as a test event for the Rio 2016 Olympics.

Sheeraz Sheikh began his first round of qualification in the men's skeet with a perfect score of 25 to be on top of the standings while Mairaj Ahmed Khan was lying 22nd having shot two rounds of 24 and 22 each. Man Singh was in 46th place.

There is still a long way to go with the skeet finals slated for Sunday and Saturday being the second day of qualification.

Gurpreet shot 289 to finish his qualification stage one in 14th place. He started strongly shooting 99 and 98 in the first two relays of 10 shots each before registering a 92 in the third relay to slide down a little in the leader board.