India opened their medal tally in shooting at the Hangzhou Asian Games early on Sunday morning with the team silver in women's 10m air rifle. The trio of Mehuli Ghosh, Ramita Jindal and Ashi Chouksey combined for a score of 1886.0, finishing behind China who broke the Asian record with a score of 1896.6.
Mehuli and Ramita also reached the final of the women's 10m air rifle, to be held at 9.15 AM today. Ramita, 19 years of age, finished second with a score of 631.9 while Mehuli was fourth in qualification with 630.8 .
The team medals in shooting are decided based on the combined score of a country's shooters in qualification. India secured their medal early on with Ramita and Mehuli consistently being among the top shooters. Ashi was 29th in qualification with a score of 623.3.
Hosts China topped the qualification with two of their shooters - Han Jiayu and Huang Yuting reaching the final. South Korea's Lee Eunseo, Mongolia's Ganhuyag Nandinzaya and Oyunbat Yesugen as well as Chinese Taipei's Chen Chi are the other shooters in the 8-player final.
Last month at the ISSF World Championships in Baku, the Indian women's 10m air rifle team, which also featured Mehuli and Ramita along with Tillotama Sen, had won gold. China had won silver then.
The Indian women's Air Rifle team comprising (from left) Tilottama Sen, Mehuli Ghosh & Ramita also won gold �� in the team competition at the Baku Shooting World Championship. Congratulations!!!������������������ pic.twitter.com/ZmpLTnqJdv
- NRAI (@OfficialNRAI) August 19, 2023
In Baku, Mehuli had also won bronze and sealed an Olympic quota behind China's Han Jiayu and Wang Zhilin, both of whom will be part of the Asian Games final as well. She will hope for a repeat of that, with another Indian joining her.
Team medals are back at the Asian Games after two editions and will likely boost India's tally given Indian shooters' consistency and depth. You can read more about how the final of the women's 10m air rifle will be scored here.