NEW DELHI: Shotgun shooter Ganemat Sekhon didn’t let a poor start disturb her focus. In fact, she went on to create history at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range here. With her bronze medal in the women’s skeet final on Sunday, she is now the first Indian woman in skeet to finish on the podium in senior ISSF World Cups.
Ganemat’s historic medal took India’s medals tally to nine (3 gold, 3 silver, 3 bronze) at the end of day three of the competition. The hosts lead the chart, followed by USA who have five medals, including three gold.
The Chandigarh girl began by missing three targets in her first 10 shots, which left her in fifth place in the six-woman final. But she clawed her way back to finish in the top three.

The gold medal was decided in a shootoff between Great Britain’s Amber Hill and Kazakhstan’s Zoya Kravchenko, both of who ended tied on 51 points after 60 shots.
Hill won the shootoff to claim gold.
While Ganemat began the final on an average note, the other Indian in the fray, Karttiki Singh Shaktawat, hit the marker with a perfect-10 to lead the field and then shared the lead with Zoya at 17 points each after 20 shots.
Poland’s Natalia Szamrej was the first to be eliminated with 14 points. Ganemat had by then jumped a place to fourth, and continued to up her game.
Ganemat then shot 9/10 next to go into joint lead with teammate Karttiki and two others. Roxana-Sofia Miklos of Romania exited the final at fifth place with 22 points.

Karttiki missed twice in her 31st to 40th shot to exit the competition with a fourth-place finish. She garnered 32 points. Ganemat didn’t miss any target in that series to confirm a historic medal for herself.
Before this, Ganemat had won a bronze medal at the 2018 Junior World Cup in Sydney and a silver medal at the 2019 Asian Championships in Doha.
Missing four times in her 41st to 50th shot ended Ganemat’s hopes of going further than a third place. But it still entered her name into the history of Indian shooting.
In the men’s skeet final, Gurjoat Singh Khangura was India’s lone entry, after he edged veteran Mairaj Ahmad Khan to book his place in the medal round.
However, Khangura could only finish in sixth place with 17 points. Jesper Hansen of Denmark won gold (58 points), UAE’s Saif Bin Futais ended with a silver (51) and Qatar’s Nasser Al-Attiya claimed bronze (44).