Anantjeet, Darshna Rathore win national skeet mixed team gold

Asian Champion shooters Anantjeet Singh Naruka and Darshna Rathore produced a consistent performance to win the Senior Skeet Mixed Team gold medal, at the 68th National Shooting Championship Competitions (Shotgun) on Wednesday. The Rajasthan duo defeated Uttar Pradesh pair of Mairaj Ahmad Khan and Areeba Khan 45-43 in a closely contested gold medal match to seal the title, at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range here.

Anantjeet hit 21 targets and Darshna contributed 24 to hold off Mairaj (21) and Areeba (22) in the gold medal match. Earlier in the day, Rajasthan topped the qualification standings with 143 hits as Anantjeet shot 73 and Darshna added 70, securing a direct berth in the gold medal match.

Uttar Pradesh booked their place in the final after edging past Haryana in a shootout during qualification. The pairing of Mairaj (74) and Areeba (68) was tied with Haryana on 142, before prevailing 4-3 in the shootout.

Haryana’s team of Raiza Dhillon (72) with 21 hits and Ishaan Singh Libra (70) with 20 hits subsequently went on to secure the bronze medal, defeating Madhya Pradesh 41–39 in the third-place match.

The Madhya Pradesh duo of Rituraj Bundela (20) and Mansi Raghuwanshi (19) finished fourth. In the Junior Skeet Mixed Team event, the Telangana pairing of Yuvek Battula and Lakku Venkat Lakshmi contributed 19 hits each to secure the title. Madhya Pradesh fought hard with Jyotiraditya Sisodiya hitting 17 and Vanshika Tiwari adding 20 hits, but ultimately finished one point short in a closely contested final.

The junior bronze medal went to Punjab as Harmehar Singh Lally and Parmeet Kaur claimed the third place with 40 hits over the Rajasthan pair of Yashasvi Rathore and Yashwardhan S Rajawat, who finished with 39 hits.

Earlier, in the junior qualification, Telangana topped the standings with 141 targets through Yuvek (73) and Venkat Lakshmi (66) to secure their spot in the gold medal match along with Madhya Pradesh, who finished in second place with 140 hits through Vanshika (71) and Jyotiraditya (69).

Punjab finished third with an aggregate of 136 hits (Harmehar - 73 and Parmeet Kaur - 63) and Rajasthan finished fourth with a total of 133 hits (Yashasvi -70 and Yashwardhan - 63). The 10m Air Pistol Women’s finals is scheduled on Thursday. Anantjeet hit 21 targets and Darshna contributed 24 to hold off Mairaj (21) and Areeba (22) in the gold medal match