Bengal's Mehuli wins 8 gold medals at National Shooting Championship

Talented Bengal shooter Mehuli Ghosh won as many as eight gold medals including four in the team event at the ongoing 61st National Shooting Championship Competitions (61st NSCC), here on Thursday. 

Mehuli, who has recently secured a Youth Olympic Games quota, won the Junior Women's, Women's Civilian and Junior Women's Civilian Championship golds by pushing back Gujarat's Elavenil Valarivan to Silver in all three events. 

She also won the women's youth individual gold in the event, getting the better of Shreya Agrawal of Madhya Pradesh in the final with a new finals national record. She also won the team golds in all these four events with teammates Shreya Bandyopadhyay and Ayuishi Podder. 

Gujarat's talented teenager Valarivan, won her career's first senior national gold in the women's 10M Air Rifle event. 

Valarivan, who had last month shot a final world record-equaling score in the same event at the national selection trials, overcame a quality field at the National Games Shooting Range in Trivandrum, Kerala; this time with a new finals national record score. 

The eight finalists of the women's 10m Air Rifle event read like the whos who of women's rifle shooting in India with the presence of Rio Olympians Apurvi Chandela and Ayonika Paul, current India internationals Pooja Ghatkar and Anjum Moudgil apart from Mehuli among others. 

A total of 4800 men and women shooters from across the country are participating in the 61st NSCC including 200 wildcard entries.