Veteran Indian shooter Mairaj Ahmed Khan scripted history on Monday by winning the first-ever ISSF World Cup gold medal for the country in men’s skeet in Changwon.
In the 40-shot final, the double Olympian shot 37 to finish ahead of Korea’s Minsu Kim (36) and Britain’s Ben Llewellin (26), who clinched the silver and bronze, respectively.
Khan is the oldest member of the Indian contingent in Changwon this year. He shot 119/125 during two days of qualifying before winning his first individual gold. The 46-year-old from Uttar Pradesh bagged a silver at the 2016 World Cup in Rio de Janeiro.
Earlier in the day, Anjum Moudgil, Ashi Chouksey, and Sift Kaur Samra outplayed the Austrian team to claim bronze in the women’s 50m rifle 3P team event.
But Khan was the show stealer. After finishing with 119, he competed for two final qualification places along with four others, including two-time Olympic medallist Abdullah Al Rashidi of Kuwait. Khan was certain of a top-eight spot When Japanese Shotaro Toguchi missed his eighth shoot-off shot.
In the ranking round, he was facing difficulty against German Sven Korte, Korean Minki Cho, and Cypriot Nicolas Vasiliou for another 30-target round. With his 27 hits, he topped the round with Sven following him to the medal round with 25 hits.
