New Delhi, April 17 (H.S.): Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon made an impressive performance in her first World Cup final, finishing fifth in the women's skeet event. On the second day of the second stage of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup for Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun, India secured second place in the overall medal tally, with two golds, one silver, and one bronze, following China.

Raiza, a former junior world championship silver medalist and bronze medalist from last year's Asian Championship, showed a strong performance on Wednesday in her first senior World Cup final. In the final consisting of 60 shots, she hit 26 after the first 30 shots before being eliminated. She had to surpass China's Jiang Yiting, who has previously won a mixed team bronze medal at the Paris Olympics. Raiza also faced a setback with the highest bib number. She hit 19 out of the first 20 shots, which helped her surpass the second Chinese finalist, Che Youfei.

Shotgun legend and three-time Olympic champion Kimberly Rhode won the gold medal with 56 hits, and the American team secured the 1-2-3 positions in this event. Samantha Simonton had to settle for silver after losing to Rhode 1-2 in a shoot-off for the gold, while former world champion Dania Vizzi took home the bronze medal. This is Kimberly's 19th individual World Cup gold and her overall 26th gold, which includes double trap and mixed team skeet. Her performance took place on Wednesday evening at the Las Palmas range.

Raiza was in 10th place overnight and needed two strong rounds to make it into the top 6 of the final. She scored a perfect 25 in the first round and then 24, tying with Kazakhstan's Zoya Kravchenko at 117. In the shoot-off, Zoya missed her second shot, allowing Raiza to secure the sixth and final spot. Raiza's teammate Ghanemat Sekhon showed the opposite trend. She started the day in sixth place but finished ninth with a score of 116. Darshana Rathore ranked 15th with a score of 110.

Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar