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The Indian shooting contingent is one of the highly favoured teams to win medals with a great mix of youth and experience in the running. Jitu Rai won a gold medal in the Men's Air Pistol event, adding to the tally of five gold medals for India at the Commonwealth Games so far. Heena Sidhu, Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela were the other medal winners for India in shooting.
The two young shooters who came into the Games with a lot of promise and expectations were Mehuli Ghosh and Manu Bhaker.
Manu Bhaker is one of the youngest shooters in the Indian contingent at the age of 16 and made her debut at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games. She won the silver medal in the Women's 10m Air Rifle event in a final shoot-off with Singapore's Martina Lindsay Veloso.
Mehuli, who is just one year older than Manu Bhaker, has shown great composure, especially at the end of the Women's 10m.
We take a look at the accomplishments of young Mehuli and Manu in the sport before she has even graduated from her school.
Mehuli Ghosh
#1 Medals at the National Shooting Championships
After reinvigorating her young career under former Indian marksman Joydeep Karmakar, Mehuli went on to shine at the National Shooting Championships. She won two medals at the Nationals in her first attempt in 2016 and bettered her tally the next year when she won a total of eight medals in 2017.
#2 First International Medal in Shooting
Mehuli participated in the youth category in the Asian Airgun Championships held in Japan and won her first gold medal.
#3 Two Bronze Medals at the ISSF World Cup on debut
Ghosh carried on her promising rise in the sport and came through on expectations when she grabbed two bronze medals at the ISSF World Cup in 2018. She won her first medal in the 10 metre Air Rifle event and the second along with fellow shooter Deepak Kumar in the mixed team event.
#4 Junior World Record
During the ISSF World Cup in Mexico, Mehuli shot a world record score of 629.1 in the 60-shot qualifiers breaking the Junior World Record score. This record was recently broken by fellow Indian shooter Elavenil Valarivan.
#5 Top 10 World Ranking
After her exploits at the ISSF World Cup in Mexico, Mehuli was ranked 6th in the Women’s 10m Air Rifle rankings in the latest rankings released by the federation.
Manu Bhaker, is a year younger than Mehuli Ghosh, but has achieved a lot in her young two-year career in the range. She won the gold medal at the 2018 Commonwealth Games with a Games record score beating out fellow Indian markswoman Heena Sidhu, who had to settle for the silver.
We take a look at the 16-year old Bhaker's accomplishments in shooting before she has even passed out of high school.
#1 First International glory for Manu
Manu was a multi-sport athlete competing in tennis, boxing and Manipuri martial art Thang-ta at the National level. She shifted her focus to shooting soon and won her first International medal at the 2017 Asian Junior Championships winning a silver medal.
#2 Impressive showing at the National Championships
At the National Championship held in Kerala, Manu Bhaker amassed a mammoth tally of nine medals. She stole the limelight at the competition when she defeated multiple-time World Cup medalist and former World No.1 Heena Sidhu and even broke Sidhu's record score shooting 242.3 points in the final.
#3 Twin gold medals at ISSF World Cup in Mexico
Manu Bhaker announced her arrival on the big stage in shooting when she grabbed two gold medals in her maiden appearance at the International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup held in Guadalajara, Mexico. Bhaker won the 10m Air Pistol event defeating Mexico's own Alejandra Zavala, scoring 237.5 in the final ahead of Zavala's 237.1.
She won her second gold medal in the 10m air pistol mixed team event when she paired with Om Prakash Mitharwal to emerge triumphant with a total score of 476.1 points
#4 Dominated the ISSF Junior World Cup as well
Manu Bhaker added two more gold medals to her already impressive tally at the Senior World Cup when she won at the ISSF Junior World Cup. She won the mixed 10m air pistol event with her partner Anmol Jain as the duo dominated proceedings at the World Cup.
Bhaker and Jain set a new junior qualification world record score and entered the final stage with the highest qualification score coasting through to the top podium finish.They finally scored a tally of 478.9 points, which was just 1.8 points away from the world record score.
#5 Top 10 World Ranking
In the recently released ranking by the ISSF, Manu Bhaker was adjudged as the World No.5 in the Women's 10m Air Pistol standings.
