S Kannan in Paris
Ramita Jindal soaked in the big stage pressure like a sponge, for the second day in a row. On Sunday, at the 10m air rifle ranges in Chateauroux, a three-hour trip from Paris, the 20-year-old showed remarkable cool as she registered a total of 631.3 points to make the final.
It was an intense field with two Indians in fray, Elavenil Valarivan and Ramita. Elavenil looked good, but stage fright and pressure caught up with her for the second day in a row.
For Ramita, who is competing in her first Olympics, the ability to shoot without coming under time pressure and withstand the challenge from others in a tough field marked her out. Shooting is a sport where the athlete is competing with himself or herself.
Ramit has prepared in depth and rigorously for a long period of time. She stays away from the spotlight and focuses more on going through the training routines. This time, the way Indian shooters went through the grind and made the qualifying through trials was intense. It was held in New Delhi and Bhopal. As recent as last month, the rifle shooters were firing in Bhopal, as part of their build-up for Paris 2024.
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🚨BREAKING: Ramita Jindal has made it to the final of the 10m air rifle, but it was heartbreak for Elavenil Valarivan.@RohanDC98 and @iabhijitdesh have more details from the venue👇.@ThumsUpOfficial @WeAreTeamIndia #Pari #BlueRev pic.twitter.com/3M5vvwUFN1
— RevSportz Global (@RevSportzGlobal) July 28, 2024
On Sunday, hours of practice and reaching near perfection stood out, as the cards which Ramita turned in reflected her mental state. An aggregate score of 631.5 points after 60 shots told the story in itself.
Ramita, who hails from Haryana, started with 104.3 in the first series. Compared to the Korean, Hyojin Ban, this was lesser by 1.9 points. What turned out to be important was to seek consistency and turn in better scores in the next five series. Sure enough, Ramita cranked up to 106.0 in the second series. Good, but there was a fight on, as even Elavenil looked good.
The third series was crucial as well. Ramita came up with a 104.9, and then shot 105.3, 105.3. The sixth series needed one thing, to stay calm. Ramita did it, she took aim, loaded and came up with a 105.7. There are various ways one can interpret the scores in shooting. Most important is consistency and not too many fluctuations. Ramita showed it in ample measure in a hall where the quality of shooting was high intensity. Apart from Korean Hyojin, there was also Hegg Duestad from Norway, who shot well. In third place was Audriey Gogniat from Switzerland, followed by Yuting Huang from China.
A fifth-place spot for Ramita, where eight made the cut for the final is what was needed. When she shoots the final on Monday, she will start from scratch. The decimal point scoring on Monday will witness fierce competition. Inner rings will be the focus and margin for error will be zero. Before this, two rifle women from India had made the final, Anjali Bhagwat in 2000 in Sydney and Suma Shirur, now coach with Team Indian, in 2004 Athens.
For the record, Ramita had won a bronze medal at the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year.
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