Indian women's 10m air rifle team bags silver in Asian Games

Junior world champion Ramita Jindal won the individual bronze in her event, shooting 230.1 in the eight-shooter finals.

The experienced trio of Mehuli Ghosh, Ramita Jindal and Ashi Chouksey's bagged the women's team silver while Ramita also clinched an individual bronze in the 10m air rifle event as Indian shooters made an impressive start to their Asian Games campaign, here on Sunday.

A combined score of 1,886.0 earned the Indian troika the second spot behind hosts China, who smashed the Asian record with a score of 1,896.6.

Junior world champion Ramita then won the individual bronze in her event, shooting 230.1 in the eight-shooter finals.

China won both the gold and silver medals in the event with Huang Yuting breaking the Games record with a score of 252.7 on way to top podium finish. Han Jiayu came in second with 251.3 points.

The 19-year-old Ramita was in contention for a silver medal before she fell behind because of a rank poor 9.9 on the 13th shot.

Mehuli, the other Indian to make the eight-shooter final, finished fourth with a score of 208.43.

TEAM SILVER ========= Despite ending up second best to China in the team category, all three Indian women shooters were in the 'zone' on Sunday.

Ramita scored 631.9 in qualification to finish second, while Mehuli was fourth with a score of 630.8 points.The third Indian, Ashi, was slightly off-target, managing managing 623.3, to finish 28th in the qualification round.

But the combined score of the trio was good to earn them the silver and lift the morale of the Indian contingent, which is hoping to better the haul from the previous edition of the Games in Jakarta and Palembang, where they won nine medals.

The team medals in shooting are decided on the combined scores of a country's shooters in the qualification round.

China won the team gold with all their three shooters -- Han Jiayu, Huang Yuting and Wang Zhilin -- firing on all cylinders to re-set the Games record.

Mongolia finished third with a combined scored of 1880.0.

FINE SHOW BY INDIANS IN QUALIFICATION ============== All three Indians were up to the task in the qualification round with Ramita shooting consistent scores of 104.3, 106.7, 105.2, 104.3, 105.4 and 106.0 in the six series to garner 631.9, which placed her second behind Han Jiyan of China, who smashed the 10m air rifle Games qualification record and Asian record with a superb 634.1.

Mehuli, who also made it to the individual final with a score of 630.8 in qualification, too had things going for her with scores of 104.6, 105.7, 104.6, 105.1, 104.9 and 105.9. She finished fifth to make the final round.

However, the third Indian shooter Ashi failed to make it to the final, finishing 28th with a qualification round score of 623.3.

Mehuli, 22, following her exploits in several international events of late, was the firm favourite to stand on the podium in the individual event, but Ramita had other plans.

Ramita, who was crowned world champion in the 10m air rifle junior event at the ISSF World Championship (Rifle/Pistol) in Cairo last year overcame the slight lapse in concentration on the 13th shot to again get into the groove and shoot some good scores, eliminating Mehuli while in contention for bronze.

Missing a medal, would have come as a huge disappointment for Mehuli who, last month won a bronze at the ISSF World Championship in Baku, Azerbaijan along with a 2024 Paris Olympic quota place.