Mehuli Ghosh of India won bronze in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan and a Paris Olympic quota place on Saturday. The Indian, who had earlier in the day topped qualifying with a sizzling 634.5, shot 229.8 in the 24-shot eight-woman final to bow in third place at the end of 22-shots.
China won gold and silver with Han Jiayu finishing with 251.4 and Wang Zhilin who ended with 250.2. 15-year-old Tilottama Sen however won hearts with a brilliant fourth-place finish. Mehuli Ghosh also won a gold on the day when Tilottama, Ramita and herself teamed up to win the 10m Air Rifle Women Team competition with a combined total of 1895.9, ahead of China who totalled 1893.7. Germany won bronze.
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Visibly happy after the final she said in the NRAI press release, “I am very happy with the bronze medal and also with the Olympic quota. I thank everyone including SAI, NRAI, 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.”
On the final Mehuli Ghosh 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 Women’s Air Rifle was the last final of the day and began at 6.00pm local time. By then, India had endured a tough day with the Men’s Skeet and Men’s 10m Air Rifle squad finishing outside medals. Thanks to the Air Rifle Women’s efforts, India finished the day with two gold and two bronze medals and in third place on the medal tally behind leaders China and second placed USA, who have two golds and one silver.
As mentioned, Mehuli Ghosh topped the qualifications with a national record score of 634.5 while Tilottama was sixth in qualifying with 631.3. Ramita, who shot in the first relay and was the third Indian in the field, also shot well but finished 11th with 630.1 in the 140-strong field. The top eight besides the two Indians and the two Chinese also had Martina Lindsay Veloso, the youngest ever ISSF World Cup medal winner. Swiss Audrey Gogniat, Iranian Amirani Chehel and in-form Frenchwoman Oceanne Muller complete the finals line-up.
Mehuli Ghosh in-fact was the slowest started beginning with a 10.2 while Tilottama was one better with a 10.4. After the first five single shots series however, Mehuli was up to second and did not quite leave the top half till she bowed out in the end. Tilottama was struggling at this stage at the very bottom.
Tilottama began her comeback from the 11th shot onwards. Martina was the first to be eliminated in eighth after the 12th shot and by then the two Han and Wang had moved to the top. A 10.6 by Sen for the 14th and a 9.6 by Muller meant they went into a shoot-off for seventh place. She brushed that aside with a solid 10.7. Mehuli Ghosh 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 shooting high 10s to then account for Gogniat first and then when she took out Amirani after the 18th, a medal and quota place was confirmed for India. One country could win one quota in each event and the Iranian and Swiss shooters also won quota places for their countries. China won the other quota place.
A string of slim 10s had meant that Mehuli Ghosh was unable to challenge the two Chinese but a 10.8 for her 20th shot ensured that she pipped her junior compatriot for the coveted world championship medal.
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