Paris Olympian Raiza Dhillon gave a commanding performance on way to clinching the skeet gold in both women’s senior and junior categories in the National Shooting Championship on Saturday. The 21-year-old shot 56 in the women’s final to secure the top-podium place ahead of Yashasvi Rathore, who settled for silver with 55. Fellow Olympian Ganemat Shekhon finished third after shooting down 45 targets.
Darshna Rathore (36), Risham Kaur Guron (27) and Vanshika Tiwari (18) finished fourth, fifth and sixth respectively. Earlier in the the qualification round, Yashavi topped the standings with 118 hits while Raiza and Ganemat shot 116 each, with the former finishing second on a shoot-off score of plus-5, while Ganemat was placed third at plus-4.
Darshna Rathore finished fourth with 115, while Risham Kaur Guron and Vanshika Tiwari followed closely with 114 apiece, their positions decided on shoot-off scores. In the women’s team event, Rajasthan clinched gold, with Yashasvi Darshna and Olympian Maheshwari Chauhan aggregating 343 to top the standings.
Madhya Pradesh (Vanshika Tiwari, Mansi Raghuwanshi, and Oshmi Shrivas) finished second with a total score of 328, while Punjab (Ganemat Shekhon, Parinaaz Dhaliwal and Asees Chhina) claimed the bronze medal with 325.
Raiza continued her dominant run in the junior skeet final as well, shooting 55 to finish one ahead of Vanshika Tiwari, who took silver with 54. Mansi Raghuwanshi won the bronze medal with 45. Qualification topper Yashasvi (118) finished fourth in the final with 34, followed by Risham Kaur Guron (22) and Sanyogita Shekhawat (14).
In the junior women’s team event, Madhya Pradesh (Vanshika Tiwari, Mansi Raghuwanshi, and Oshmi Shrivas) emerged winners with a total of 328, while Rajasthan (Yashasvi Rathore, Sanyogita Shekhawat, and Kamna Udawat) secured silver with 326. Punjab finished third to claim the bronze medal with 314 (Risham Kaur Guron, Parmeet Kaur, Sifat Chhina).
“No, I haven’t confirmed my participation as of now. That’s kind of just where it’s standing until we have a better understanding and a better working concept with World Athletics,” he said. “I’m an all-or-nothing person, so if I’m showing up to an event, you’re getting my all.
I don’t want to show up anywhere that I can’t give my everything and my all and my showmanship and my excitement to. “If you’re limiting me in doing that, then I can’t give myself nor the fans what I believe would be the best performance,” he added.
Lyles, who became the first sprinter since Bolt to record a treble in 2023 World Championships (100m, 200m and 4x100m relay), said Los Angeles is a “perfect place for great things to happen” when asked if breaking the Jamaican legend’s record is on his list of goals. “I would say that LA is a perfect place for great races to happen and I’m very blessed to be able to have the Olympics show up in my lifetime on home soil,” he said.
“I’m not going to let that opportunity go by without taking advantage of it and yes, the all-or-nothing mentality is something that I plan to continuously push forward,” Lyles added. ‘Can we give the greatest events to be seen?’ Lyles said his decision in finalising participation in Ultimate Championships will also be swayed with what he can offer as an athlete.
“I constantly think about, ‘can we give everybody the greatest events they’ve ever seen? How do we constantly recreate that or create it in a new light? If it’s something that’s never been done before, let’s do that’,” he said.
“If it’s something that has (been done before), let’s figure out how to go even further this time. That’s my thought process when it comes to major champs, how to structure the season, and what I want to do,” he added.
Lyles said he will look to remain flexible in terms of his preparation and participation in events but would want to follow the routines he did ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympics, where he won a gold in 100m and a bronze in 200m.
“… because everything is subject to change. We’re in 2025, about to go into 2026, so that would technically be almost two years away (from LA28),” he said. “The sport could change dramatically in that time period. We don’t know. I’d never want to make anything concrete. I want to make everything flexible enough to change.
“But preferably, it would be a similar season to 2024 where I would have a very big indoor season to really rev up the engine for the 100m. I would probably do more 200s, an equal amount of 100s and 200s in that year. I think that was something that I wanted more of in 2024,” he added.
‘Won’t call rivalry against Jamaicans difficult’ Lyles, who finished third behind Oblique Seville and Kishane Thompson in World Championships in Tokyo this year, said he won’t term the rivalry with the Jamaicans as “difficult”. “Everybody’s here to win — I would be disappointed if you weren’t. (But) I wouldn’t call it difficult; I would call it inspiring,” he said.
“When the competition is tough, that’s when you get to see the best. When you can’t figure out who’s going to win, those are the most exciting races. But they’re also the ones that I strive the best in.” Known for “reinventing” himself on and off the track, Lyles says he doesn’t want to be stagnant.
“If I become stagnant, then that’s when I stop succeeding, stop progressing. That’s when I stop growing, and that’s when everybody has time to catch up,” he said. “I don’t see a reason to not try to reinvent myself, to not strive for better, find new ways of attacking a problem that has yet to be solved and that’s why I constantly try to grow.”
