Dehradun, Jan 29 Ramita Jindal of Haryana turned in a world-class performance to take centre stage in the women’s 10m Air Rifle qualification event on the opening day of shooting competitions in the 38th National Games at the spanking new Trishul Shooting Range here on Wednesday.
Asian Games medallist Ramita topped the charts in the Air Rifle event, her score of 634.9 bettering the 634.5 by Korea’s Ban Hyo-jin in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Mehuli Ghosh had shot 634.5 to lead the qualification in the 2023 World Championships in Baku.
Ramita led the eight qualifiers for the women’s Air Rifle final. Her score gave her a 0.4-point margin over Arya Borse (Maharashtra).
Tamil Nadu’s Narmada Raju was only 0.1 point behind and in third place. Kerala’s Vidarsa K. Vinod, who was leading the standings at one stage, was fourth with 633.0 points. The last berth in the Olympic final was secured at 631.3.
Shreya Agarwal (Madhya Pradesh), 632.0, Elavenil Valarivan (Gujarat) 631.9, Meghana Sajjanar (Karnataka) 631.2, and Manyata Singh (Odisha) 630.1 completed the set of eight finalists who will do battle on Thursday. It promises to be a riveting contest that will test the nerves of each of the shooters.
The 587 that Vijayveer Singh Sidhu (Punjab) shot in the Rapid Fire Pistol on Wednesday would have given him a place in the Olympic final if he had got it in Paris where he shot 583. Anish Bhanwala (Haryana) 582, Neeraj Kumar (Services) 579, Bhavesh Shekhawat (Rajasthan) 577, Omkar Singh (Services), and Gurpreet Singh (Services) 574 each made it to the final.
The London 2012 Olympic Games silver medalist Vijay Kumar (Himachal Pradesh) was in the running for a place in the final, but a sub-par last series put paid to his aspirations. Had he shot 94 instead of 90 in the four-second series in the second stage of qualification, the veteran may have forced a shoot-off for sixth place.
Around 10,000 sportspersons will be participating in 30-odd disciplines of the 38th National Games in Uttarakahnd which were inaugurated by Primie MInister Narendra Modi on Tuesday.
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