Young gun Ramita captures bronze

EVEN among precision sports, shooting is unique. The margins are so small a gap of 0.1 can be the difference between agony and ecstasy, elimination or progress. At the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre on Sunday, Ramita and Mehuli Ghosh went head-to-head to decide the penultimate elimination in a tense women's 10m air rifle final.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

Up till that point, Ramita was exchanging positions at the top of the standing with the Chinese pace-setters - Huang Yuting and Han Jiayu. After 15 shots in the final, Ramita had left Mehuli in the rearview mirror. She had split the two Chinese and had burned Han, World No 1 in the discipline, with five successive scores of 10.5 (the highest possible is 10.9) or more. It was a clinic in precision shooting and she was just 0.1 off Huang. Mehuli, who had earned India an Olympic quota in this event last month, had come into the final as one of the favourites to medal.

Twenty minutes later, the senior shooter was trailing her junior of three years.