Mairaj Khan, AD Peoples and Man Singh (still a junior) finished 1-2-3 in the skeet event of the national shooting championships, being held in Jaipur, today Mairaj’s gold winning score was 142 (118+24) and had he done it in the recently concluded Asian championships in Kuwait, he would have definitely had a podium finish there. His performance underscores a long-standing bane of Indian skeet shooters — they usually perform well at home but falter at crucial stages in international competitions.In Kuwait, Mairaj finished 27th. His score was a lowly 110. Also in the two World Cups that he took part in, he was far from impressive.Peoples came second with a score of 137 (115+24), but looked a bit off colour. He is certainly capable of much better scores. His recent best was 139, but in Kuwait, he failed to reach the final with a score of 115 and finished 12th.Man Singh, still a regular in the junior category, grabbed the opportunity to win the third place. His score was 136 (114+22). With the same score (114), he also took the title in the junior section. Smit Singh (113) and M Shiraj Sheikh (109) took the silver and bronze, respectively, in the junior group.With only four participants, Sania Sheikh had it easy in the women’s category to emerge champion with 62 With a score of 58, Rashmi Rathore was second. Bhawana Kumari was a distant third at 33.ResultsMen: Skeet (team): Punjab 327 (PP Singh, Arozepal Singh, Sarabdeep Mann), Army 320 (Ashok Kumar, Baljeet Singh, Gagan Kumar), Delhi 319 (Man Singh, PS Sodhi, HS Bedi)
