Amid Saturday's sombre scenes of young teary-eyed shooters and their parents at the waiting hall by the ranges here, one face stood out. Ramita Jindal walked around smiling while accepting congratulatory remarks. Indian shooter Ramita Jindal( X Image) About an hour earlier, ahead of the start of the fourth and final qualification round, Ramita sat behind her lane, dabbling with the Rubik's Cube.
"I had to calm my mind, because there were so many thoughts going through," she would say later. Unlock exclusive access to the latest news on India's general elections, only on the HT App. Download Now! Download Now! Perhaps the farthest was a top two finish in the women's 10m air rifle trials for the Paris Olympics .
Within a matter of minutes, however, it dawned into becoming a fortunes-fluctuating reality. An incredible qualification score of 636.4, strung together by a series of 106.
1, 105.2, 106.0, 105.
7, 106.4 and capped off by an exquisite 107.0, brought out claps, calculators and Ramita's Paris hopes in dramatic fashion.
Up until that final round, Ramita — she shot 631.1, 628.3 and 630.
8 in the first three qualification rounds, and average scores of best three were considered — was below Tilottama Sen, Nancy and Elavenil Valarivan in the pecking order in the five-women field. Even Ramita knew the task ahead of her, which knocked Tilottama and Nancy out of contention, bordered on the near-impossible. That's not to say the Asian Games bronze medallist was short on belief.
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