Areeba Khan won India’s second medal of the International Shooting Sport Federation Shotgun World Championship in Osijek, picking up a silver in the Skeet Women Junior event at the Olympic Shooting Range ‘Pampas’.
In a thrilling finale in Croatia, she shot 29 targets in the 40-shot final, going down in the last shot to Great Britain’s Sophie Herrmann who shot 30 for gold. Romania’s Reveca-Maria Islai won bronze with 20 hits in the first 30 targets.
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Areeba finished third in the qualifiers shooting 110 out of 125 targets. She had to beat Germnay’s Emelie Bundan 2-1 to secure that position. She then won her ranking round with 19 hits and made it to the medal round along with Islai. In the other ranking round Sophie shot 22 to top and India’s Mufaddal Zara Deesawala was second with 20, making it two Indians in the medal round.
Mufaddal, who shot 108 in qualification to finish sixth, eventually finished fourth in the event with 12 hits in the medal round in the first 20 targets.
Areeba’s was India’s second medal of the World Championship after the Junior Men’s Trap Team had won a gold. Bhowneesh Mendiratta had also won a Paris Olympic quota, India’s first for the 2024 Games, earlier in the championship. He finished fourth in the event.
India’s challenge in the Junior Men’s Skeet ended early, with Bhavtegh Singh Gill and Abhay Singh Sekhon shooting 109 for 32nd and 33rd place finishes. Rituraj Bundella shot 108 to finish 36th.