World Championship: Mehuli Ghosh seals Paris Olympic quota after winning bronze in 10m Air Rifle

Air Rifle team comprising (from left) Tilottama Sen, Mehuli Ghosh & Ramita also won gold in the team competition at the Baku Shooting World Championship (Image: @OfficialNRAI/Twitter)

Young shooter Mehuli Ghosh clinched a quota place for India at next year's Paris Olympics after winning a bronze medal in women's 10m Air Rifle event at the World Championship, in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Saturday.

The 22-year-old from Kolkata also teamed up with Tilottama Sen and Ramita to win the 10m Air Rifle team competition with a combined total of 1895.9, ahead of China who totalled 1893.7. Germany won bronze.

However provision for Olympic quota is only restricted to individual events.

Mehuli shot 229.8 in the final to ensure a podium finish behind Chinese duo Jiayu Han (251.4) and Zhilin Wang (250.2). In the Air Rifle event, the top three shooters are guaranteed Olympic quota places.

India have won three Paris quota places till now through Rudrankksh Patil (10m Air Rifle Men), Swapnil Kusale (50m Rifle 3 Positions Men) and Bhowneesh Mendiratta (Trap Men).

Mehuli pipped 15-year-old Tilottama Sen, who however won hearts with a brilliant fourth place finish. Tillottama (208.4), unfortunately, bowed out before the start of the medal round.

In fact, Mehuli had a stellar qualification round as she topped the 140 strong field with a score of 634.5, while the eventual gold winner Han was third with a score of 632.3 and silver winner Wang was eighth and last with an aggregate of 630.8.

Visibly happy after the final, Ghosh said, "I am very happy with the bronze medal and also with the Olympic quota.

"I thank everyone including SAI, NRAI, TOPS for supporting me and I hope I can make all of you proud in the future as well and bring more medals for the country." On the final, she said, "I was very excited and nervous for the final. In-fact I can still feel the nerves. There was very little difference between each one of us. It was very exciting and I am happy with the result."