Mihir Vasavda at Asian Games: Young Ramita Jindal threatens to defy Chinese dominance before clinching 10m air rifle bronze | Asian-games News
Ramita Jindal was inscrutable in the face of deep adversity.The young Indian, only 19, was up against two Chinese favourites – one on either side of her – in the first shooting final of these Asian Games. On her back were a thousand other Chinese in the stands. And she’d just shot a score that halted her march to the top while reinvigorating the partisan fans whom she had hushed with remarkable shooting until then.
Amidst the clattering of hand-held clappers and relentless hooting, Ramita stood motionless and poker-faced. If the cacophony was getting to her, she wasn’t showing it.
The loudest cheer of the morning wasn’t for any Chinese shot. The celebratory fervour in the packed range of the Fuyang Yinhu Sports Centre was instead for the Indian shooter’s sub-par score of 9.9 on the 16th shot of the women’s 10m air rifle final.
🔫🌟
The magnificent trio of #RamitaJindal, @GhoshMehuli, and #AshiChouksey bags silver for India at the 10m Air Rifle Team Event 🥈🇮🇳#SonySportsNetwork #Cheer4India #AsianGames #TeamIndia #Hangzhou2022 pic.twitter.com/FCSy1tSOLs
— Sony Sports Network (@SonySportsNetwk) September 24, 2023
A student of accounts and finance, Ramita must have made mental calculations about the effect of that one shot. Before the shot, she was in the silver medal position and close on the heels of leader Huang Yuting – at one stage, she was only 0.1 behind the Chinese star. This, after overtaking the other home favourite, Jiayu Han.
But in a sport of decimals, this turned out to be a blunder that cost Ramita dear. The 9.9 came at the most inopportune time from her point of view. For, the two Chinese shooters shot high 10s to pull ahead of her, reclaiming the top two spots and didn’t relinquish them again.
And Ramita, who looked on course to winning the silver and even had the gold medal within her reach at one point, fell out of the podium spots before eventually clawing her way back to third position.
Whether it was a bronze won or a silver lost will be debated in the days to come. But for Ramita, her maiden Asian Games will be a memorable one.
The individual 10m air rifle bronze followed the team silver she won along with Mehuli Ghosh (who finished fourth in the final) and Ashi Chouksey, with China unsurprisingly running away with the gold medal.
Pointer to the future
The team medal, although not so significant in the bigger picture, provides some insight into the depth of the rifle team.
Hangzhou: India shooter Ramita Jindal being congratulated teammate Mehuli Ghosh after the former won bronze medal in 10m Air Rifle Womens (Individual) event at the 19th Asian Games, in Hangzhou, China, Sunday, Sept. 24, 2023. (PTI Photo/Shailendra Bhojak) (PTI09_24_2023_000088A)
For the shooters seeking redemption after flopping at back-to-back Olympics, the Asian Games will be the perfect prelims before the Paris Games and in that context, there’ll be plenty of takeaways for the new-look women’s air rifle team from this campaign.
Ashi, 21, a product of the Madhya Pradesh State Shooting Academy, signed up for the sport at her school six years ago only so she could skip the NCC classes.
Mehuli, who started shooting after getting fascinated with guns she saw in movies, was already knocking on the doors of the national team when Ashi picked up a rifle for the first time.
Largely on the fringes until the Tokyo Olympics, Mehuli – whose performance at the recent World Championships, where she secured the Paris Games quota, justified the years-long hype surrounding her – is now one of India’s foremost rifle shooters.
After a poor start in the individual final, Mehuli did well to crawl up to fourth place but she was largely fighting for survival in most elimination shots and never really in medal contention, in sharp contrast to Ramita who took on the Chinese from the first shot itself.Most Read
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Expecting a Chinese clean sweep wherever their athletes are competing, the locals packed the stands at each venue on the first day of the competition, including at the far-flung rowing and shooting centres – sports where spectators usually don’t queue up.
The atmosphere was nothing like what Ramita, making her multi-discipline Games debut, had previously experienced. But in the most intimidating environment she’s competed in, Ramita had ice flowing through her veins as she silenced the crowd with her precise shots, consently scoring mid-to-high 10s.
One could hear a pin drop as the final reached the business end, where what once looked like an assured Chinese gold came under immense pressure. Just then, Ramita shot the 9.9 – her only shot below 10 in the final – and it sealed her fate. And another India-China duel on a day of many such face-offs went in the favour of the home nation.
