On her way to bronze in 10m air rifle, Mehuli Ghosh wins Paris Olympic quota at Baku World Championship

India’s rifle shooter Mehuli Ghosh held her nerves to seal the ticket for the Paris Olympic Games. She did so on her way to winning bronze in the women’s 10m air rifle on Saturday at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan. The 23-year-old West Bengal shooter topped the qualification round with a sizzling 634.5 points.

“I’m happy to have won the Olympic quota. Hope to bring more medals for the country in future,” Mehuli said in a post-event interaction.

In the medal round, she shot 229.8 to clinch the bronze medal and a place at the Paris Olympics.

“It was intense competition. There was very little difference between each one of us. It was very exciting and I am happy with the result,” Mehuli added.

Chinese shooters Han Jiayu (251.4 points) and Wang Zhilin (250.2) finished 1-2 in a highly competitive eight-shooter final. India’s 15-year-old Tilottama Sen finished fourth.

Each country could only win one quota in each event and the Iranian and Swiss shooters also won quotas for their countries. China won the remaining spot.

The Indian women’s 10m air rifle team also won gold. Mehuli, Tilottama, and Ramita shot a total of 1,895.9 points, ahead of China, whose aggregate score was 1893.7 points. Bronze went to Germany.

Ramita, the third Indian shooter in the fray shot 630.1 but finished 11th in the 140-women field. The top eight advanced to the medal round.

In the day’s other results, Divyansh Singh Panwar scored 627.5 in the men’s 10m air rifle qualification, but finished 28th. Aishwary Tomar was further back at 33rd spot. He shot 627.3. Hriday Hazarika finished 68th with a score of 623.6 points.

In the men’s skeet, despite Angad Vir Singh Bajwa shooting 121 in qualification, he finished 29th. Anant Jeet Singh Naruka shot 120 to finish 44th while Gurjoat Khangura scored 115 to finish further down the ladder.