Coach Karmakar expects top-eight finish from shooter Mehuli at Junior Worlds

Kolkata, June 21: As sixteen-year old shooter Mehuli Ghosh readies herself to take part in the Junior World Championships, her coach, Olympian Joydeep Karmakar, expects a top-eight finish from his “well prepared” student.

“I am expecting her to finish in the top eight which is the fil. From there on it’s anybody’s game these days,” Karmakar, who runs a shooting academy of which Mehuli is part of, told IANS on the eve of the Junior World Championship in Suhl, Germany. The eight-day event, to be held from June 22-29, will see Mehuli take part in the 10m Air Pistol Women event. Hailing from Baidyabati, a municipality in Hooghly district of West Bengal, Mehuli recently took part in the 27th Meeting of the Shooting Hopes held in Plzen, Czech Republic.

“That was the first time she was boarding a flight. She showed tremendous character and did really well. But interlly, I always told her it was a disaster. This way I plan to always keep the bar high. So that her thirst for more is never quenched,” Karmakar, who finished fourth in the 50m rifle prone event in the 2012 London Olympics, said. “Besides honing her technical skills, we at the academy have paid a lot of attention to her mental strength. I have asked her to stay out of social media while she is in Germany. We have also worked on her diet and other things such as basic German to help her acclimatise better,” Karmakar added. “She is well prepared and if she can maintain her form, I am sure a top eight finish is on the cards,” Karmakar said. (IANS)