S Ezhilarasi came good at the crunch as she beat a strong field to clinch the women’s air pistol gold in the Khelo India University Games at the Dr Karni Singh Range, Tughlakabad, on Tuesday.
The second-year Visual Communication student from Madras Christian College, beat Yuvika Tomar by 1.9 points to win the gold for University of Madras, while the much accomplished Manu Bhaker was pushed to the bronze medal.
“It feels great to win against shooters of so much international experience. It is surreal”, gushed Ezhilarasi, quite particular that the Doordarshan interviewer got her name’s pronunciation right.
“I was upset with the 8s in the final, but am thrilled to overcome the setback and win the gold”, said Ezhilarasi, who turned the flow in her favour with shots of 10.7 on the 19th and 20th in the 24-shot final.
Manu fought brilliantly to secure a medal despite not being at her best. She fired as many as ten 9s and two 8s in the final. She did well to qualify in second place with 585. She had missed a medal after topping qualification with 588 in the 25-metre sports pistol earlier.
Qualification topper Surbhi Rao (587) led for the most part, but a string of 9s pulled her to fourth place.
Neha Tomar, Devanshi Dhama, Varsha Singh and Vibhuti Bhatia were the others to make the final.
In women’s skeet, Parinaaz Dhaliwal overcame a wasp sting on her hand to clinch the gold as she beat Talveen Gill 51-50. Qualification topper Karttiki Shaktawat (112) won the bronze.
In men’s skeet, Arjun Thakur prevailed over qualification topper Gurnihal Singh Garcha 56-53 for the gold. Bhavtegh Gill won the bronze ahead of Sukhbir Harika, Prabh Chahal and Paramjot Grewal.
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