Bhavtegh Singh Gill clinches the skeet gold

Bhavtegh Singh Gill wins men's skeet final, Yashasvi Rathore wins women's bronze, India excels

Bhavtegh Singh Gill won the shoot-off 2-1 against Petros Englezoudis of Cyprus in the men’s skeet final, after the two were tied on 58 out of 60, to deliver the elusive individual gold medal for the host in the World University shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range on Tuesday.

It was a commendable fare from the 21-year-old Bhavtegh, who had won the Junior World Cup silver in Propetto, Italy, earlier this season.

Bhavtegh could have won the gold in normal course, but missed one of the last two birds to trigger hopes for Englezoudis. However, he sealed the yellow metal by nailing the first pair, after the Cypriot missed one of the first two.

With qualification topper Abhay Singh Sekhon (122) clinching the bronze medal, the joy of the shotgun camp was complete.

Earlier, competing in her maiden international event, Yashasvi Rathore, a first year student of Manipal University in Jaipur, won the women’s skeet bronze after having qualified in the second place. She could have got a better medal but for missing the last pair.

In the indoor arena, Simranpreet Kaur Brar won the 25m sports pistol bronze behind Minseo Kim of Korea and Heloise Fourre of France. She lost the chance for a better medal by one point to the Korean, who nosed ahead in the climax. The Korean shot four out of five on her last seven series for a remarkable burst for gold.

In women’s air rifle, India drew a blank as Manini Kaushik (632.0) and Sanjeeta Das (631.7), who had shot brilliantly in qualification to be right at the top, slipped to the sixth and seventh spots.