Bengal’s Mehuli Ghosh wins Shooting World Champs

The news of the Bengali girl Mehuli Ghosh along with Tushar Mane winning gold at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun stage in Changwon, Korea made all of us proud. In the 10m Air Rifle Mixed team category, winning the gold was not easy. Mehuli and her teammate were up against at the ongoing . Up against Hungarian team of Eszter Meszaros and Istvan Peni, the Indian duo registered an emphatic 17-13 win to clinch the yellow metal.

The pair of Shiva Narwal and Palak added another medal to India’s tally after winning the bronze medal in the 10m Air Pistol mixed team event. In a one-sided affair, the Indian team crushed Kazakh duo of  Irina  Loktionova and Valeriy Rakhimzhan 16-0. Following the two results on Wednesday, India jumped to the second spot in the medals tally with two gold and one bronze so far.

Mehuli and Tushar ensured India’s second medal of the event after topping their 10m Air Rifle Mixed team qualifiers with a sizzling 634.4 after 60-shots. Born on 20 November, 2000, Mehuli represented India at international junior shooting championships across the world. Among 123 competitors, she was the only Indian shooting athlete to reach the finals of the 2018 junior shooting competition held in the Czech Republic. She finished in seventh place there. In 2018, at the XXI Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast, Australia, she won a silver medal in Women’s 10m Air Rifle after a shoot-off with Martina Veloso. According to the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF), she has a world ranking of sixth and third in Asia.

Mehuli joined the Serampore Rifle Club in 2014. She was banned by the club for accidentally hitting a person during practice. Later, she was mentored and coached by former Indian Olympic finalist and Arjuna Awardee, Joydeep Karmarkar and received her training at the Joydeep Karmarkar Shooting Academy. In 2016, she was selected for the Indian National Shooting Championships held in Pune. She received two gold medals and seven silver medals at the national championships. In the 2017 National Championships, Mehuli won eight gold and three bronze medals, and was judged Best Shooter.

In 2017, she participated at the preparatory junior shooting championship held in the Czech Republic and finished at the seventh position. She finished in 17th position at the Junior World Shooting Championship held in Germany. Mehuli became Asian Champion in 2017 December in Wako City, Japan, with a score of 420.1 and bagged the Youth Olympics 2018 Quota place. In March 2018, she became one of the youngest competitors from Indian ever to win two World Cup medals at the ISSF World Cup, in Mexico. She created a Junior World Record on the way to winning there. Mehuli qualified for Commonwealth Games 2018. In 2018, at the XXI Commonwealth Games held at Gold Coast, Australia, she won silver in Women's 10m Air Rifle after a shoot-off with Martina Veloso. In 2019, she won gold at the South Asian Games in Nepal. 

Ghosh was awarded the title of ‘Female Young Athlete of the Year’ at the Sportstar Aces Awards in 2020. Mehuli’s journey to success has only started and with so many accolades and awards, it is little wonder that she has finally won the gold medal at The World Champs.