New Delhi: India’s Ramita Jindal finished seventh in the high-quality, high-pressure women’s 10m air rifle final that was won by South Korea’s 16-year-old Hyojin Ban, in Chateauroux on Monday.

Competing in her maiden Olympics, Ramita, an Asian Games bronze medallist in the individual rifle event, shot a score of 145.3 to be eliminated second in the eight-woman final. The 20-year-old from Kurukshetra, Haryana, had made the cut on the back of a fifth-place finish (631.5) in the qualifications on Sunday.

Ramita started well, shooting an impressive series in the first five shots that also included a perfect 10.9, but a 9.7 on the tenth shot cost her. She was placed seventh after the first stage (10 shots). Her next two shots though were 10.4 and 10.5 which kept her 0.8 points ahead of Norway’s Jeanette Duestad. The Norwegian thus became the first shooter to be eliminated.

In rifle shooting, elimination begins from the 12th shot and every second shot thereafter is an eliminator. Shooters are allowed no more than 50 seconds between shots.

Ramita next shot a brace of 10.2 to tie with France’s Oceanne Muller for the seventh spot at 145.3, necessitating a single-shot shoot-off to break the deadlock. Under intense pressure, Muller shot a near-perfect 10.8 to leave Ramita with the gargantuan task of shooting the bull’s eye. Ramita took her time and pulled the trigger; the result was an impressive 10.5, but on the day of reckoning, it was not enough.

More drama awaited towards the end of the match as China’s 17-year-old reigning Asian Games champion Yuting Huang, who had led the field for the first 14 shots, was beaten by Ban in a nerve-wracking shoot-off.

The Chinese shot a brilliant 10.3 and 10.5 as her final two competition shots in response to Ban’s 9.9 and 9.6 which meant that both teenagers had equalled the Olympics record of 251.8. It also meant that the winner was to be decided by a shoot-off. Ice-cold Ban put the disappointment of two sub-par shots behind her to hit a solid 10.4 while Huang came agonisingly close, logging a 10.3.

It was only apt that in a sport where margins are measured in decimals, it took the barest of them all - 0.1 - to decide the Olympic champion.

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