Commonwealth Games silver medallist Mehuli Ghosh continued to make waves as she shot an intimidating 632.7 in the qualification stage of women’s air rifle in the 18th Kumar Surendra Singh shooting championship at the Dr. Karni Singh Range in Tughlakabad on Sunday.
Competing in the second relay that had all the best shooters in the country, the 17-year-old Mehuli, who is coached by Olympian Joydeep Karmakar, stood tall with a near world record score.
It was a better average than 10.5 over 60 shots, with 10.9 as the perfect.
Mehuli who had a series of 105.9, 105.3, 105.7, 106.4, 104.4 and 105.0 was a mere 0.7 point off the world record shot by Zhu Yingjie of China in the World Cup in Fort Benning.
Such a high level of consistency was not a surprise as Mehuli had shot a record 252.8 during the mixed air rifle final on Saturday, a score that was 0.4 point better than the world record by another Chinese Zhao Ruozhu who shot it in the World Cup in Changwon in April.
Meghana Sajjanar (628.0), Anjum Moudgil (627.2) who holds a world record in rifle 3-position event, Elavenil Valarivan (627.1), Neha Chaphekar (625.3), Shreya Agrawal (624.3), Barkha Chauhan (623.3) and World Championship finalist Avneet Sidhu (622.7) followed Mehuli in her relay.
Asian champion Pooja Ghatkar (622.4), Elizabeth Susan Koshy (619.2), Olympian Ayonika Paul (619.1), former national champion Mampi Das (618.7) were not in a position to fight for a berth in the eight-shooter final, in a strong field of about 350 shooters.
Even Samrat Chahal who topped the first relay with 623.5, may find it hard to make the cut, as the qualification would continue on Monday, culminating in the finals in the afternoon. Mihika Poore who topped the third relay with 621.6 stood no chance.
Meanwhile, in 25-metre standard pistol, Adarsh Singh won both the men’s and junior gold medals, with a score of 576.
Anish Bhanwala who had won the junior World Championship gold in the event in Suhl last year, placed fourth among the juniors with 561.
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