Promising youngster Mehuli Ghosh won as many as eight gold and two bronze medals at the ongoing 61st National Shooting Championship in Thiruvananthapuram.
The 17-year-old Mehuli, who recently secured a Youth Olympic Games berth by winning gold in the Asian Airgun Championship in Waka City of Japan last week, won the junior women’s, youth women’s, women’s civilian and junior women’s civilian golds. She also won the team golds in all these four events with teammates Shreya Bandyopadhyay and Ayushi Podder.
The shooter from West Bengal also set four new national records.
Mehuli had won two gold and seven silver medals in the previous edition held in Pune.
Another talented teenager Elavenil Valarivan of Gujarat, became the new national champion in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle.
The 18-year-old Elavenil, who had last month shot a world record equaling score at the national selection trials, overcame a strong field — which included Olympians Apurvi Chandela, Ayonika Paul and ISSF World Cup bronze medallist Pooja Ghatkar — to claim the title with a new national record. Elavenil, bettered the old mark of 249.8, set by Pooja at the Brisbane Commonwealth Shooting Championship in November.
Elavenil, who was just 0.1 point ahead of Apurvi Chandela of Rajasthan before the last shot, held her nerves to shoot a 10.5 compared to Apurvi’s 10.4 to eventually win the gold while Mehuli won the bronze.
The Results:
Women’s 10m Air Rifle: 1. Elavenil Valarivan (GUJ) 250.6 (417.7); 2. Apurvi Chandela (RAJ) 250.4 (419.3); 3. Mehuli Ghosh (WB) 228.7 (418.9).
Women’s 10m Air Rifle Team:┬á1. Gujarat (1244.3); 2. Maharashtra (1244.0); 3. Bengal (1243.0).
10 medals-8 Gold 2 Bronze 4 National Records in 1 National Championships.The 5 feet shooter stood like tower today!Dont remember any athlete take away so much from one event in Nationals during my 29yrs shooting career. @Ra_THORe @OGQ_India @IndiaSports @JKSAindia @RaninderSingh pic.twitter.com/0n576Do9l0
ÔÇö joydeep karmakar OLY (@Joydeep709) December 14, 2017
Also Read: Meet Mehuli Ghosh, The new sensation in Indian Shooting