CWG medal a huge boost for me, says shooter Mehuli (IANS Interview)

Teenaged shooting sensation Mehuli Ghosh reckons that her silver medal at the just-concluded 2018 Commonwealth Games (CWG) is a huge boost as it will help her at future competitions.

The 17-year-old Kolkata girl had surpassed defending champion Apurvi Chandela in the last few moments of the women's 10 metre air rifle event of the 2018 CWG but missed the yellow metal by a whisker.

Speaking to IANS on the sidelines of a felicitation event organised by the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Mehuli said: "It was my first CWG and this (silver medal) is like a booster for me. I however, missed the gold by a whisker."

"I gained a lot of experience and lessons from here (CWG) and I surely hope that all this will help me in my future competitions," she explained.

The silver medallist, who will now be featuring at the World Cup Shooting Championship, scheduled to begin on April 20 in South Korea, further said that she takes every competitions as a new beginning.

"I try to start every competition from scratch, so I will have to again focus on my game, give my best in every shot and have to fight till the last," Mehuli said.

Mehuli further revealed that she had a brief chat with her coach Joydeep Karmakar, who represented India at 2012 London Olympics in shooting, before going to the final game at the 2018 CWG.

"I just had a short 2-3 minute talk with my coach before the finals. As my qualification round was not up to the level, he (Karmakar) asked me to forget about it.

"He motivated me saying that the finals are again a new start and asked to just focus on my game," Mehuli said.

Further explaining about her goals, she said: "I have Asian Games and World Championship, which are very crucial competitions for me. I have a target to earn the Olympic quota."

"I don't really think about medals or scores, which I hardly do. I am just focussing on my techniques," she added.

She also opined that as a number of youngsters are taking up the game (shooting), competition level has become too high nowadays compared to previous years.

Speaking on the amount of pressure in prestigious events like the CWG, Mehuli explaind: "If I think about pressure, it will not work for me. At such big levels, it (pressure) is a part of the game."

"Each and every players face such situations, we just have to go through it," Mehuli concluded.

(Kaushik Kumar can be contacted at kaushik.k@ians.in)

--IANS

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