World University shooting championship: Bhavtegh strikes gold in men’s skeet

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 the normal course but missed one of the last two birds to trigger hopes for Petros. However, he sealed the gold 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 shogun 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 second place. She could have got a better medal but missed the last pair.

In the indoor arena, Simranpreet Kaur Brar won the 25-metre 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 for the gold. The Korean shot 4 out of 5 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.

India collected the team gold in three of the four events of the day, to bolster its overall collection.