Ramita Jindal qualifies for women’s 10m air rifle final at Olympics

Chateauroux (France), Jul 28 (PTI) India’s Ramita Jindal gave a strong display of marksmanship to qualify for the women’s 10m air rifle final in fifth place even as Elavenil Valarivan succumbed to pressure to miss out despite being among the contenders, finishing 10th at the Olympic Games here on Sunday.

Ramita, the Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist in the event, aggregated 631.5 to become the second shooter from the country after pistol exponent Manu Bhaker to secure a berth in the final, while Elavenil scored 630.7.

Ramita had a sluggish start and was not among the top-eight till the sixth and final series but she rallied superbly to book a berth in the final while stalwart Elavenil, who had finished 16th at the Tokyo Olympics three years back, held on to the fifth position for much of the qualification round.

But a poor last series of 103.8 saw the 24-year-old former junior world champion take a mighty tumble from fifth to 10th slot and miss the eight-shooter final.

Ramita, who had scored 636.4 points, 0.1 more than the world record during the Olympic Selection Trials in New Delhi and Bhopal, was patchy initially, shooting a below-par 104.6 in the opening series before she shot 106.1 in the next round.

Another ordinary 104.9 was followed by two successive 105.3 and a 105.7 which fetched her a dream entry into the final.

South Korea’s Ban Hyojin smashed the Qualification Olympic Record (QOR) with a superb score of 634.5, eclipsing the previous mark of 632.9 set by Norway’s Jeanette Hegg in Tokyo Games.

Elavenil, who had struggled following the Tokyo Games and could not enter the squad for the Hangzhou Asian Games last year, kept averaging a score of 10.5 throughout the qualifying round as she shot superb series of 105.8, 106.1, 104.4, 105.3, 105.3 but a rank poor final series of 103.8 saw her bowing out.