India Eyes Next Shooting Medal, Ramita Jindal Reaches 10m Air Rifle Final

After Manu Bhaker’s historic bronze medal haul on Sunday, all eyes are on Ramita Jindal and Arjun Babuta, who will be competing in the 10m air rifle women’s and men’s categories respectively today.

Ramita who had scored 631.5 seemed till the final series that she wouldn’t make the cut. However, the shooter finished the 5th series in the rankings to make it to the medal round.

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The Hangzhou Asian Games bronze medallist amassed 631.5, while compatriot Elavenil Valarivan scored 630.7 to finish 10th and miss the eight-shooter final. Meanwhile, Babuta has secured a spot in the men’s 10m air rifle final of the Olympic Games after finishing seventh in the qualification.

Manu Bhaker who became the first Indian to claim an Olympic medal and ended a 12-year wait for India in the discipline, will return to action on Monday in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team Qualification.  She will team up with Sarabjot Singh, who fell agonizingly short of making the individual final on Saturday. Other teams who will be in action are Rhythm Sangwan and Arjun Singh Cheema.

During the Olympics Selection Trails in New Delhi and Bhopal, Ramita scored 636.4 points, surpassing the world record by 0.1 points.

However, in the qualification round, she had an inconsistent performance, starting with a below-par 104.6 in the opening series before improving to 106.1 in the next round. She followed this with another average score of 104.9 and then shot two consecutive 105.3 and 105.7, which ultimately earned her the spot in the finals.

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In the final on Monday, she will take on Ban Hyojin who shot an Olympic record in qualification, previous world record holder Jeanette Hegg Duestad, and China’s Asian Games champion Hyang Yuting who already had clinched gold in Paris.