Shooter Mehuli and judoka Tababi Devi bag silver for India
Poor final shot lets Bengal shooter down; Tababi Devi’s silver India’s first medal in judo at Olympic level
NEW DELHI/BUENOS AIRES: Seventeen-year-old Indian shooter Mehuli Ghosh missed gold by a fraction, settling for silver in 10m air rifle at the Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires on Monday. On a day when the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games silver medallist was looking good for gold, a poor final shot, which fetched her 9.1, cost her the top finish. She won silver with a score of 248, behind Denmark’s Stephanie Grundsoee, who finished with a score of 248.7.
This was India’s second silver from the shooting ranges in two days with Shahu Mane coming second in men’s 10m air rifle on Sunday.
Mehuli topped the qualifying with a score of 628.8 in the morning and led the eight-woman finals field after 10 shots with a score of 104.3, a clear 1.1 points ahead of Stephanie. But by the 12th shot, which is also the stage when the first of the eight finalists gets eliminated, Germany’s Anna Janssen had come up to second. Serbia’s Marija Malic too was among the leading trio.
Mehuli shot a superb 10.7 on her 22nd shot and with just two shots to go was ahead of Grundsoee by 0.8 points. Mehuli was ahead by 0.6 points before the final shot but a 9.1 to the Dane’s 10.6 on the final shot, saw Grundsoee go past the Indian and clinch gold.
India still has Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary to look forward to as far as the shooting events are concerned and then there are the mixed pairings.
TABABI DEVI SHINES
Earlier, Thangjam Tababi Devi became India’s first judo medallist at the Olympic level, claiming a silver at the ongoing Youth Games after losing to Venezuela’s Maria Giminez in the finals of the women’s 44kg category here.
Tababi Devi, an Asian cadet champion hailing from Manipur, lost 0-11, also conceding a penalty point in the process, in the summit showdown that lasted a little over two minutes on Sunday night.
India have never won an Olympic medal in judo either at the senior or the youth level. The 16-year-old defeated Ana Viktorija Puljiz of Croatia 10-0 in the semi-finals.
Prior to that, she defeated Bhutan’s Yangchen Wangmo 10-0 in the round of 16 before getting the better of Erza Muminoviq of Kosovo in the quarter-finals.
Her silver was India’s second medal at the ongoing Games after shooter Tushar Mane also clinched the second position in the men’s 10m air rifle competition.
In swimming, national champion Srihari Natraj could not qualify for the men’s 100m backstroke finals after finishing 9th in the semis. Only the top-eight make the finals.
Nataraj clocked 56.48sec, which was better than his Heats timing of 56.75sec.
India won just two medals -- a silver and a bronze -- in the last Youth Olympics in 2014 in Nanjing in China.
India’s best performance at the Games came in its inaugural edition in 2010 when the nation fetched six silver and two bronze medals.
INDIA BEAT AUSTRIA 4-2
The women’s hockey team defeated Austria 4-2. India scored through Lalremsiami (4th, 17th minutes), skipper Salima Tete (5th) and Mumtaz Khan (16th) to register the victory. For Austria, Sabrina Hruby (13th) and Laura Kern (20th) were the goal scorers.
The Indians started on an aggressive note and struck twice in the opening five minutes through vice-captain Lalremsiami and skipper Salima. Austria pulled a goal back in the 13th minute through Sabrina. But India restored their two-goal advantage 3 minutes later.