Angad Vir Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan Win Historic Gold and Silver in Men’s Skeet at 14th Asian Shooting Championship

23-year old Angad Vir Singh Bajwa, a joint world record holder and 44-year old Mairaj Ahmad Khan, brought the curtains down on day six of the ongoing 14th Asian Shooting Championship in Qatar, pulling off an Indian 1-2 in Men’s Skeet and with that securing India’s 14th and 15th Tokyo 2020 Olympic quota places in Shooting.

Angad won gold overcoming his senior mate 6-5 in a Shoot-off to separate the top two, after both had tied at 56 hits apiece in the 60-shot final. Kuwait’s Habib Saud won bronze and the third available quota place.

This was after both overcame a marathon eight-way Shoot-off for three final qualification spots. Mairaj won that one hitting 38 birds straight to overcome Habib who missed his 38th, even has Angad bagged the sixth and final spot hitting 25 straight.

Both Mairaj and Angad had posted scores of 120 out of 125 in qualification.

Speaking on behalf of both after the effort, Mairaj said, “It was not easy, particularly in the qualifying Shoot-off but I was very confident and had prepared well for this competition. So had Angad and I was very confident of him as well. Before the competition I had told everyone that both Angad and me would win quotas and I am happy that it came true.”

It was a fitting finish to a massive day for Indian Shooting and also brought to the fore what symbolizes the sport in India today- a fantastic mix of experience of youth.

For the record, this is now India’s best ever quota haul for the Olympic Games in Shooting by miles, beating the 12 won for Rio 2016.

Also, this is the first time India has been crowned Asian Champion in Skeet Shooting. It is also India’s best ever quota haul in Skeet shooting, after Mairaj had won a quota in the previous edition.

Earlier in the day, 18-year old teenager Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar had won India’s 13thTokyo quota in the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions with a bronze winning performance.

India therefore ends their pursuit of Olympic quotas coming back with six quotas from this competition to add to the nine they had won earlier.

There was more cheer for India as they pulled off yet another 1-2 in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team competition. The pair of Manu Bhaker and Abhishek Verma winning the gold medal match 16-10 over compatriots Yashaswini Singh Deswal and Saurabh Chaudhary.

The junior Air Pistol Mixed team of Esha Singh and Sarabjot Singh also won their event with a facile 16-10 victory over the Korean pair of Minseo Kim and Yunho Sung who settled for silver.

Other Indian medals on day six were as follows

Men’s Skeet- Angad, Mairaj and Smit Singh won the team silver

Women’s Skeet- Darshna Rathore (placed 10th with score of 114), Ganemat Sekhon (11th with 113) and Saniya Sheikh (12th with 112) won bronze with a combined score of 339.