Trisha Ghosal in Hangzhou
India opened their medal account at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou with a silver in the 10m Air Rifle Women’s Team event on Sunday morning. The shooting events kicked off at the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre with the 10m Air Rifle Women Team and Individual events. India had three participants – Ashi Choksey, Mehuli Ghosh and Ramita Jindal.
The Indian team began slowly and at the end of the first series, they seemed pretty much off colour. From the second series onwards, Ramita picked up a steady and consistent pace faltering only on a few occasions. Mehuli, who came into the Asian Games after an incredible World Championship, where she sealed an Olympic quota for India, had a strong finish and Ashi played her part as well. India won the silver medal with China, the hosts, taking the gold. The day was far from finished, and the excitement was far from over. Of the three Indian athletes, two had qualified for the final.
After winning the team medal, Mehuli said, “We are all very proud to win the first medal for India, and now we will work our best to win more and more medals.”
Ashi, who fell short of qualification after scoring 623.3 from her six series, spoke about winning the medal but not qualifying for the individual event. “This is my first medal in shooting, and I am feeling really good and I am proud of my team,” she said. “I prepared really well for it. There was a lot of learning from the match, like what to do next. Two events are left, so I am hoping for a medal from any of them.”
Ramita and Mehuli proceeded to the final as part of the top eight. Both had a steady start, but Ramita kicked on while Mehuli was a little scattered with her performance. Ramita made it quite evident from the second series itself that she was in form and a podium finish seemed likely. Once the elimination rounds started, Mehuli was under constant threat of being the one to be knocked out. That was where she stepped up, put up a fight and held her composure to save herself from elimination. A rare slip from Ramita saw her go down to the third position, and Mehuli kept herself alive in the context. For the Indians, it was a tough moment when Mehuli and Ramita were pitted against each other for the bronze. When Suma Shirur, their head coach, was asked what was going through her mind when both the girls were fighting for the medal, she said, “I wanted both to make it, and so I was just hoping to give them the courage. It’s not easy and all that they needed was a little bit of courage. My heart was in my hands.”
While Mehuli missed her mark by a whisker, Ramita kept her cool and sealed the bronze to take India’s medal tally for the day to five.
Talking about how she kept fighting till the end, Mehuli said, “I was just telling myself to keep on it and hold on to it – ‘You are almost there and you know how to fight in these situations. You have played so many finals and just use that experience and just keep your focus and just fight back.’”
“It’s my first international medal at the Senior level, so I am very happy,” said Ramita. “I was in the 7th class when I started shooting. My father’s friend took me to a range in Haryana. In starting, it was a fun game but with time I realised the importance of the game and the technique and all.”
Interestingly, while Mehuli and Ramita were fighting for the same spot on the range, off it, they not only have immense respect and affection for each other, they are roommates as well. Talking about Ramita, Mehuli said, “I am having too much fun fighting against her, being friends and roommates for the entire year. It’s great to be friends with her and have such a great rivalry with her on the range at the same time.”
Talking about their equation, Ramita said, “She is great, she recently won World Championship bronze medal and she is also my senior, I take guidance from her. When we don’t have a match, we have a lot of fun, we go out and have good food and all.”
RevSportz Comment: This was my first time at a shooting range in an event like Asian Games, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. India winning medals made the experience better, but even sans that, I enjoyed every bit of it. With more medal events in shooting in the coming days, let’s hope India can manage more medals. Till then, let’s celebrate our shooters who have already given us reasons to be proud of them.