Finance
Mehuli Ghosh won bronze in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle on Saturday, claiming an Olympic quota spot for India in the process at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship (All Events) in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) announced on Saturday that India has won gold in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Team Competition.
India concluded the day with two gold and two bronze medals, placing third on the medal tally behind leaders China and second-placed USA, who each have two gold and one silver medal.
Mehuli, the Indian shooter from Kolkata who had earlier in the day led qualification with a scorching 634.5, finished third in the 24-shot eight-woman final with a score of 229.8. This score was sufficient to secure her Olympic quota spot.
China won gold and silver, with Han Jiayu scoring 251.4 and Wang Zhilin scoring 250.2. Tilottama Sen, 15, of India, captured hearts with her fourth-place result.
However, India’s duo of Tilottama and Ramita won the 10m Air Rifle Women duo competition with a combined total of 1895.9, beating China’s total of 1893.7. Germany was awarded bronze.
Visibly happy after the final, Mehuli said, “I am very happy with the bronze medal and also with the Olympic quota. I thank everyone including SAI, NRAI, and TOPS for supporting me and I hope I can make all of you proud in the future as well and bring more medals for the country.”
About the final, Mehuli said, “I was very excited and nervous for the final. In fact, I can still feel the nerves. There was very little difference between each one of us. It was very exciting and I am happy with the result.”
The final of the day, the Women’s 10m Air Rifle, took place late in the evening. India had already had a difficult day, with the Men’s Skeet and Men’s 10m Air Rifle squads finishing outside the medals.
Earlier, Mehuli won the Women’s 10m Air Rifle qualification stage with a national record score of 634.5, while Tilottama finished sixth with 631.3. Ramita, who shot in the first relay and was the third Indian in the field, shot well as well but finished 11th in the 140-strong field with 630.1.
Aside from the two Indians and two Chinese, the top eight also included Martina Lindsay Veloso, the youngest ISSF World Cup medalist. Audrey Gogniat from Switzerland, Amirani Chehel from Iran, and in-form Frenchwoman Oceanne Muller complete the finals line-up.
Mehuli was the slowest to start, with a 10.2, while Tilottama was one better with a 10.4. Mehuli, on the other hand, went up to second after the first five single shots series and did not leave the top half until she bowed out in the end. Tilottama was at the bottom of the barrel at this point.
Tilottama began her comeback with the 11th shot. Martina was the first to be eliminated in eighth place after the 12th shot, and by then, Han and Wang had risen to the top.
Sen’s score of 10.6 and Muller’s score of 9.6 put them in a shoot-off for seventh place. She brushed it off with a strong 10.7. Mehuli had moved up to third with a 10.8 and was 0.3 behind Han and Wang who were both on 146.6.
Tilottama kept hitting high 10s to account for Gogniat first, and when she took out Amirani after the 18th, India was assured of a medal and quota spot. Each event allowed one country to win one quota, and Iranian and Swiss shooters both secured quota spots for their countries. China took the other quota spot.
Mehuli had been unable to challenge the two Chinese after a string of low 10s, but a 10.8 on her 20th shot ensured that she pipped her junior colleague to the coveted world championship medal.
Source:IANS
