Olympics 2024 Shooting: Arjun, Ramita advance to 10m air rifle finals

After Manu Bhaker's historic bronze medal-winning feat in the 10m air pistol event on the second day of the Paris Olympics 2024, shooters Arjun Babuta and Ramita Jindal booked their spots in their respective 10m air rifle event finals, increasing India's medal chances from shooting. 

Arjun reached the final of the men's air rifle event with a solid showing in the qualification round. He scored 630.1 to confirm his place in the final on Sunday. 

He finished seventh owing to his consistent shooting throughout. His five of the six series were above the range of 104.5-106.

World record holder, Sheng Lihao of China, topped the qualification round with a total of 631.7, followed by Argentina's Julian Marcelo Gutierrez (631.7) and Italy's Dennis Danilo Sollazzo (631.4).

The second Indian in the fray was Sandeep Singh. However, he had a horrible start as he could shoot only 103.6 in the first series. Even though he made a comeback in the final round with a series of 106, he failed to make the final, finishing 12th with 629.3.

Ramita's late surge propels her to final

Ramita made a great comeback in the later half of the qualification round to confirm her spot in the women's 10m air rifle final. 

She scored 105+ in three successive series to finish fifth at the end of the qualification round, scoring an aggregated 631.5.

Elavanil Valarivan, the other Indian rifle shooter in the fray, failed to shine as she shot a 9.8 on the 59th shot and slipped out of the top eight bracket. Elavanil finished 10th with a score of 630.7.