Mahit Sandhu, an accomplished rifle shooter, secured a silver medal in the 50m Prone event at the 25th Summer Deaflympics in Tokyo. This marked her third medal at the event. During the qualification round,
she set a new World Deaf Record, which paved her way to the finals. In the finals, Mahit scored 246.1, earning her the silver medal. Eliska Svobodova from Czechia claimed gold with a score of 247.2, while Hungary's Mira Zsuzsanna Biatovszki took bronze with 225.0.
In an intense final round, Mahit initially found herself in fourth place after 14 shots. She climbed to bronze position by surpassing Ukraine's Violeta Lykova after two more shots and maintained this standing until completing 20 shots. Her subsequent scores of 9.8 and 10.2 helped her move into second place as Hungary's competitor scored slightly lower.
Earlier in the qualification stage, Mahit achieved a remarkable feat by setting a new Deaf World Record with a score of 619.7 over six series. Natasha Joshi, another Indian shooter, also advanced to the finals by finishing seventh with a score of 611.6.
In the final moments of the competition, Mahit recorded scores of 10.0 and 10.7 but was unable to surpass Svobodova's total as she also hit both her final shots in the tens range.
With Mahit's contributions, India has now amassed a total of 12 medals in shooting at these games. Previously, she had won gold in the mixed team event and silver in the individual event for the 10m category.
Natasha Joshi finished eighth after being eliminated following a shoot-off in the finals.
The achievements of Indian shooters like Mahit Sandhu highlight their growing prowess on international platforms such as the Deaflympics.
