NEW DELHI: Mehuli Ghosh and Samiksha Dhingra emphasised the strength of women’s shooting in the country as they won the youth and junior air rifle gold medals respectively in the 10th Asian Airgun championships at Wako City, Japan, on Saturday.
Mehuli shot the best final of the day as she reached a total of 250.5, which helped her beat Gao Mingwei of China by 0.1 point for the gold. Mehuli had topped the qualification with 420.6, comfortably ahead of Gao, and was consistent to be ahead in the final except for four shots, midway through the 24-shot series.
Together with Kavi Rakshna and Shreya Agrawal who could not make the final, Mehuli hauled the team to the bronze behind China and Korea.
It was almost a similar story for Samiksha in the junior women’s event. She won the gold with 249.6 with a 0.1 point margin over Zhang Yu, after having qualified in the eighth place. In fact, Samiksha had the most thrilling climax as she shot 10.9 and 10.5 on the last two shots to beat the Chinese who had enjoyed a 1.5 point lead before the last two shots.
Shreya Saksena also made the final but placed eighth. Despite Manini Kaushik placing 16th, the Indian team managed to clinch the bronze behind China and Iran.
It was slightly different in the youth men’s event as Shahu Tushar Mane bagged the individual bronze as he missed the chance to win a better medal by 0.1 point, but together with Hriday Hazarika, who also made the final and Mohit Kumar Agnihotri, won the team gold 0.6 point ahead of China.
With three gold and three bronzes from the day’s three events, the Indian collection has reached three gold, four silver and four bronze medals.
The air pistol events will be shot over the next two days.
The results:
10m air rifle: Youth men: 1. Zhang Changhonng (Chn) 250.0 (622.0); 2. Arnab Sharar (Ban) 249.5 (620.9); 3. Shahu Tushar Mane 228.2 (623.3); 8. Hriday Hazarika 121.1 (621.7); 9. Mohit Kumar Agnihotri 618.1.
Team: 1. India 1863.1; 2. China 1862.5; 3. Korea 1859.3.
Junior women: 1. Samiksha Dhingra 249.6 (414.0); 2. Zhang Yu (Chn) 249.5 (418.9); 3. Martina Lindsay Veloso (Sgp) 227.2 (414.7); 8. Shreya Saksena 121.3 (414.6); 16. Manini Kaushik 409.5.
Team: 1. China 1246.6; 2. Iran 1243.0; 3. India 1238.1.
Youth women: 1. Mehuli Ghosh 250.5 (420.6); 2. Gao Mingwei (Chn) 250.4 (419.3); 3. Zhu Ingjie (Chn) 228.1 (418.4); 16. Kavi Rakshna Chakkaravarthy 410.2; 18. Shreya Agrawal 409.7.
Team: 1. China 1253.1; 2. Korea 1241.2; 3. India 1240.5.
