Skeet shooters to take aim first at the Lonato Shotgun World Cup
Ranvir Singh
New Delhi : A six-member Indian men’s and women’s skeet shooting squad will take first aim on Sunday (July 06, 2025), as competitions for the international season’s fourth and final International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Shotgun stage, gets set to blast off at one of the sport’s traditional amphitheaters, the Trap Concaverde in Lonato, Italy. While the Skeet squad have already arrived in the Italian town well in time and hit the training ground, a further six members of the Trap team are expected to arrive later in the day.
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The qualifying rounds of the men’s and women’s skeet competition will begin on Sunday, with the first 50 targets on the roster for both events. The athletes come back on Monday for 50 more targets before the final round of 25 targets are played out on Tuesday, July 08, 2025, ahead of the both the finals.
Indian hopes will rest with Olympians Mairaj Ahmad Khan (wr 105) and Anant Jeet Singh Naruka (wr 23) as well as Bhavtegh Gill (wr 43) in men’s skeet, while the women also have two Olympians-Maheshwari Chauhan (wr 13) and Raiza Dhillon (wr 21), amongst their ranks, besides the accomplished Ganemat Sekhon (wr 63).
A crack American trio led by the legend Vincent Hancock, Italians led by Gabriele Rossetti, Abdullah Al-Rashidi of Kuwait, Nasser Al-Attiya of Qatar, Azmy Mehelba of Egypt, Jesper Hansen of Denmark and Lee Meng-Yuan (Paris bronze) of Chinese Taipei, headline a top field in the men’s skeet and the Indians will be up against it to make the top six.
In women’s skeet an even bigger American shotgun legend Kimberly Rhode, will lead another top American team, while Vanesa Hockova (3) of Slovakia, who was fourth in the Paris Olympics will be the highest ranked athlete in fray.
