India’s Ramita Jindal secured seventh place in the women’s 10m air rifle final at the Paris Olympics, a high-stakes event won by South Korea’s 16-year-old Hyojin Ban in Chateauroux on Monday.
In her Olympic debut, Ramita, an Asian Games bronze medallist, scored 145.3, making her the second competitor to be eliminated in the eight-woman final. The 20-year-old from Kurukshetra, Haryana, had qualified with a fifth-place finish (631.5) in the preliminary round on Sunday.
Ramita started strong, impressively shooting a perfect 10.9 among her first five shots. However, a 9.7 on her tenth shot cost her, placing her seventh after the first stage of 10 shots. Her following two shots of 10.4 and 10.5 kept her slightly ahead of Norway’s Jeanette Duestad, who was the first to be eliminated.
In rifle shooting, elimination begins after the 12th shot, with every second shot thereafter acting as an eliminator. Shooters have a maximum of 50 seconds between shots.
Ramita then shot two 10.2s, tying with France’s Oceanne Muller for seventh place at 145.3, leading to a single-shot shoot-off. Under intense pressure, Muller shot a near-perfect 10.8, requiring Ramita to hit the bull’s eye. Despite taking her time and shooting an impressive 10.5, it wasn’t enough to advance.
The competition intensified towards the end, with China’s 17-year-old reigning Asian Games champion Yuting Huang initially leading the field for the first 14 shots but was overtaken by Ban in a dramatic shoot-off.
Huang shot a brilliant 10.3 and 10.5 in her final two competition shots in response to Ban’s 9.9 and 9.6, resulting in both teenagers equalling the Olympic record of 251.8. The winner was decided by a shoot-off. Ban, remaining composed, shot a solid 10.4 while Huang narrowly missed with a 10.3.