Paris Olympics: Ramita Jindal, Arjun Babuta secure spot in finals
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Chateauroux (France): 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.
Babuta in final
Arjun Babuta secured a spot in the 10m air rifle final after finishing seventh in the qualification round.
The 25-year-old Babuta shot a series of 105.7, 104.9, 105.5, 105.4, 104.0 and 104.6 to make the cut with a score of 630.1 points.
He will take another shot at glory in the eight-shooter final on Monday after narrowly missing out on a final berth in the mixed team event with Ramita on Saturday, where the duo finished sixth in the qualification.
The Chandigarh boy, who has been in the national squad since 2016, has been a perennial underachiever before he came into national reckoning by clinching an Olympic berth at the Asian Shooting Championships last year in Changwon.
Army man Sandeep Singh shot 629.3 to finish 12th in the same event ending his Paris campaign, having achieved plenty of experience in his maiden Olympics after displacing world champion Rudrankksh Patil in the selection trials in April-May.
China's Sheng Lihao topped the qualifiers, shooting 631.7, just one point adrift of the qualification record of 632.7 set by countryman Yang Haoran at the Tokyo Games.