Dehradun (Uttarakhand) [India], January 29 : Ramita Jindal of Haryana delivered a world-class performance in the women's 10m Air Rifle qualification competition at the 38th National Games at the new Trishul Shooting Range here on Wednesday.
She topped the charts in the Air Rifle event, scoring 634.9, surpassing Korea's Ban Hyo-jin, who had scored 634.5 in the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Mehuli Ghosh had shot 634.5 to lead the qualification in the 2023 World Championships in Baku, according to a press release from the 38th National Games.
Jindal 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 points behind and in third place. Kerala's Vidarsa K Vinod, who was leading the charts 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) with 632.0, Elavenil Valarivan (Gujarat) with 631.9, Meghana Sajjanar (Karnataka) with 631.2, and Manyata Singh (Odisha) with 630.1 completed the set of eight finalists who will compete on Thursday. It promises to be an exciting contest that will test the nerves of each shooter.
In the men's competition, Vijayveer Singh Sidhu (Punjab) shot 587 in the Rapid Fire Pistol, which would have earned him a place in the Olympic final if he had achieved it in Paris, where he shot 583. Anish Bhanwala (Haryana) scored 582, Neeraj Kumar (Services) scored 579, Bhavesh Shekhawat (Rajasthan) shot 577, and Omkar Singh (Services) and Gurpreet Singh (Services) both scored 574, completing the list of finalists.
London 2012 Olympic Games silver medalist Vijay Kumar (Himachal Pradesh) was also in the running for a place in the final, but a sub-par final series ended his hopes. 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.
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