India start campaign with a bang
Shooter Mehuli leads charge in Buenos Aires with silver; women’s hockey team wins second match
NEW DELHI: 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 yellow metal. 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 12thshot, 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.
TABABI WINS INDIA’S FIRST JUDO MEDAL
BUENOS AIRES: 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 Crotia 10-0 in the semifinals. 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 quarterfinals.
However, in swimming, national champion Srihari Natraj could not qualify for the men’s 100m backstroke final after finishing 9th in the semis. .
India’s best performance at the Games came in its inaugural edition in 2010 when the nation fetched six silver and two bronze medals. The country is being represented by 47 athletes at the ongoing Games, its biggest ever contingent.
WOMEN’S HOCKEY TEAM BEATS URUGUAY 2-1
BUENOS AIRES: The Indian U-18 women’s hockey team maintained its fine start as it defeated Uruguay in its second match of the Hockey 5s competition here on Monday.
Striker Lalremsiami (1’, 19’) continued her goal-scoring form as she scored twice again to help India defeat Uruguary, whose only goal was scored by Magdalena Verga (10’).
The Indian team, on the back of its 4-2 victory in the opening match against Austria on Sun- day, looked confident right from the first minute of the match and scored through in-form striker Lalremsiami in the first minute. The Indian players dominated the first period of the fivea-side match and saw a goal being disallowed in 9th minute when Mumtaz Khan thought she had given them 2-0 lead, but the umpire called a foul.
Uruguay’s goalkeeper Victoria Bate produced a fantastic display to make 13 saves in the match out of India’s total 15 shots on target, to keep her team in the match.
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However, the second period was again dominated by the Indian team as they looked for a winner. The Indians took as many as 25 shots in total during the match, but could only manage to convert twice. The second instance brought India their winning goal as Lalremsiami popped up again in 19th minute to score.