Jitu shoots gold, Mehuli silver

Jitu Rai underlined his status as one of India's premier shooters by winning the 10m air pistol gold medal while Mehuli Ghosh fought back superbly to claim the women's 10m air rifle silver in the Commonwealth Games on Monday.

The World Championship silver medallist Rai shattered the Games record in the finals with a score of shot 235.1 to comfortably finish on top while compatriot Om Prakash Mitharval won the bronze medal.

Defending champion Apurvi Chandela added a bronze to India's tally after finishing third in the women's air rifle final with 225.3.

The air rifle finals witnessed an exciting a climax as the 17-year-old Mehuli shot a brilliant 10.9 in the last shot to pull level with Singapore's Martina Lindsay Veloso, forcing a shoot-off.

Both Veloso and Mehuli shot a Games record 247.2 before the Singaporean had the last laugh with a 10.3 in the shoot-off as her Indian rival managed only 9.9.

Mehuli thought she had won the gold when she fired the only perfect shot of the final with the last shot, only to be told she had equalled Veloso to force a shoot-off. The Indian shooter had already disarmed her rifle and waved jubilantly to the crowd.

Apurvi had earlier smashed her own Commonwealth Games qualifying record from four years back by scoring 423.2.

Asked about what looked like a premature celebration by her when she thought she had won a gold following that 10.9, Ghosh said, "It was my mistake. I was so focused on the game I didn't notice it was only a shoot-off."

The 17-year-old, who trains at Olympian Joydeep Karmakar's academy in Kolkata, added, "It was my first Commonwealth Games. I'm happy but definitely not satisfied."

In the men's event, Mitharval too established a new qualification record with 584. He eventually finished with the bronze after aggregating 214.3 in the eight-man finals.

Australia's Kerry Bell secured the silver medal with 233.5, having managed to topple Mitharval from the second position.

In the men's skeet finals, Smit Singh finished sixth after managing to shoot 15 out of the first 20 shots.

Self-belief the key

Later, Jitu said he never doubted his ability to bounce back. "Frankly speaking, my qualification score was not very good, but I had 100 percent faith in my ability that I can do it, because I have done well in the finals and won many medals in the past. My belief was unflinching," the unassuming Rai said.

The World Championship silver medallist was placed fourth in the qualification phase with 570.

"Two-three low scores pulled me down but then my belief helped me. That makes me really happy. So, I was confident of covering it in the finals and I never back off. So again, I am reaping the rewards of all the hard word work I have put in during training."