India shooter Ramita Jindal finished fifth^e in the women’s 10m air rifle qualification to reach the final. She became the second Indian female athlete at the Paris 2024 Olympics to qualify for the final of a shooting event after Manu Bhaker. On the other hand, Ramita’s compatriot Elavenil Valarivan finished 10^e and missed qualifying by 2 places after dropping out in the last run.

Ramita, the bronze medalist at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, finished with a total of 631.5, behind Korea’s Hyojin Ban (1^st with 634.4), the Norwegian Jeanette Hegg Duestad (2^nd with 633.2), Swiss shooter Audrey Gogniat (3^rd with 632.6) and the Chinese Yuting Huang (4^e with 632.6).

Ramita started slowly and was only in the top eight in the sixth and final heat, but she recovered well to secure a place in the final, while stalwart Elavenil, who finished 16th at the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, remained in fifth place for most of the qualifying round.

But the final run was poor with 103.8, causing the 24-year-old former junior world champion to drop significantly from fifth to tenth place and miss the final with eight players.

Ramita, who had scored 636.4 points at the Olympic qualifying matches in New Delhi and Bhopal, 0.1 more than the world record, was inconsistent at first. In the opening series she scored a sub-par 104.6, before posting a score of 106.1 in the next round.

After another regular 104.9, two consecutive 105.3s and a 105.7 followed, which earned her a dream spot in the final.

South Korea’s Ban Hyojin broke the Olympic Qualifying Record (QOR) with a stunning score of 634.5, breaking the previous record of 632.9 set by Norway’s Jeanette Hegg at the Tokyo Games.

Elavenil, who struggled after the Tokyo Games and failed to make the selection for the Asian Games in Hangzhou last year, maintained an average score of 10.5 throughout the qualifying round. She scored a great run of 105.8, 106.1, 104.4, 105.3 and 105.3, but her final run of 103.8 was downright bad and she had to withdraw.

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(With input from the agency)

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