India’s Mehuli Ghosh came within touching distance of the country’s first ever gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games but finished with silver in the 10m air rifle final after her final shot turned out be a 9.1 in Buenos Aires on Monday.
Ghosh’s silver is India’s third at the ongoing Youth Olympics.
With two shots left in the final, Mehuli held a handy lead and needed a 9.9 off the final shot to clinch the gold medal but she shot her first 9 of the final. Denmark’s Stephanie Grundsoee won the gold medal.
Ghosh started the final leading the pack with a total of 104.3 points after the first two rounds. After five rounds she briefly slipped to the fourth spot but was just 0.2 points away from the top at one point.
She made her way back into the top two and took the lead going into the final round, with two shots left. A 9.7 by the Danish shooter gave Ghosh a handy 0.8 lead. But the last shot proved to be a letdown for the Indian youngster and she missed out on the gold medal by 0.7 points.
Earlier, with six consistent rounds of shooting, the shooter from West Bengal had topped the qualification round to advance to the final. She was way ahead of the pack half-way through the qualifiers, with 105-plus in her first three series, and ultimately finished 1.7 points ahead of Zeru Wang from China.
India still have Manu Bhaker and Saurabh Chaudhary to look forward to as far as the shooting events are concerned and then there are the mixed pairings. Tushar Shahu Mane had earlier won a silver medal.