Narmada beats Paris Games finalist Ramita to win gold in 10m air rifle

The newly-built shooting range at the Maharana Pratap Sports College, reverberated with pellets hitting the target as the country's top shooters engaged in intense action at the 38th National Games here.

- Avishek Roy

DEHRADUN:

Shooting has produced a stream of precocious talents in recent times - three of the five Olympics medals at Paris Olympics has come from the sport.

While the talent pool has expanded, the competition at home is fierce. In women's 10m air rifle, particularly, the level is so high, that shooters are pushing each other to limits. The contest to book a Paris Olympics berth was tough enough for both quota winners - Tilottama Sen and Mehuli Ghosh - to lose the race at home in the Olympic selection trial.

Unlike Tilottama and Mehuli, Asian Games medallist Ramita Jindal seized the opportunity to make the cut for Paris. In her debut Olympics, she impressed the way she fought back in the qualification to enter the final. She ended up in the seventh position.