Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon made it to her first World Cup final, finishing a credible fifth in the Skeet women’s event as India ended day two of the second leg of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun with two golds, one silver, and one bronze medal, securing second place behind China in the standings.
Raiza, a former junior world championship silver medallist and bronze winner at last year’s Asian Championships, shot a solid final for a debutant in an awe-inspiring field, bowing out at the 30-shot stage of the 60-shot decider, with 26 hits to her name.
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She could not get the better of fourth-place finisher Jiang Yiting of China, a Paris Olympics mixed team bronze medallist, whom she had to beat, given the disadvantage of having the highest bib number. She had shot 19 out of the first 20 to fend off the second Chinese finalist, Che Yufei.
Shotgun legend Kimberly Rhode, a three-time Olympic champion and six-time Olympic medallist, won gold with 56 hits, leading an American 1-2-3 in the event, as Samantha Simonton went down 1-2 in a shoot-off with Rhode for gold and former world champion Dania Jo Vizzi won bronze.
Kimberly’s effort at the Las Palmas range on Wednesday evening gave her a 19th individual World Cup gold and a staggering 26th gold across events, including Double Trap and Mixed Team Skeet.
Raiza was 10th overnight and needed two great rounds to make the top six finals cut. She began with a perfect 25 and followed it up with a 24 to tie for sixth with Kazakhstan’s Zoya Kravchenko at 117. The latter missed her second shoot-off shot as the Indian clinched the sixth and final spot.
Teammate Ganemat Sekhon went the other way, starting at sixth overall and ending at ninth with 116. Darshna Rathore was further down in 15th with 110.
