Rifle shooter Ramita scores high in quality field

Ramita Jindal, who finished seventh in the 10m air rifle event at the Paris Olympics, will be hoping to carry the form into the final

Dehradun: Paris Olympics finalist Ramita Jindal made a big statement as she topped the 10m air rifle qualification with a stunning score of 634.9 -- which was better than the world record score of 634.5 by Korea’s Ban Hyojin -- in the 38th National Games here.

File picture of rifle shooter Ramita Jindal. (HT Photo)

Though it will not be counted as an official world record, Ramita, who finished seventh at the Paris Olympics, would be looking to seize the moment in the final on Thursday. Olympian Elavenil Valarivan, World Cup medallist Shreya Agarwal also made the cut. The new shooting range at the Maharana Pratap Sports College saw intense competition and high scores in the women’s 10m air rifle qualification. It can be gauged from the fact that eighth shooter to make the cut from the field of 45, Manyata Singh, shot an impressive 630.1. Besides Ramit, Arya Borse (634.5) of Maharashtra and Nithin Narmada Raju (634.4) of Tamil Nadu also shot high scores.

In rapid fire pistol, Vijayveer Sidhu shot 587 to top the qualification field. Vijayveer will be challenged by India’s best -- Bhavesh Sekhwat, Anish Bhanwala, Neeraj Kumar, Gurpreet Singh and Omkar Singh -- who are all through to the final.

Wushu gets first medal for hosts

The first medal for host Uttarakhand came from wushu. Uttarakhand’s Jyoti Verma gave the hosts much to cheer winning a bronze in Taolu singles competition. Tongbram Saya Chanu and Panthoi Devi of Manipur secure gold and silver medals in the event. Jyoti, who is employed with Uttarakhand police, won gold in senior national championships recently.

“We are very happy to win the first medal of Uttarakhand. This will serve as a motivation to athletes from the state,” said her coach Anjana Rani.

Karnataka dominates pool

In the pool, Karnataka gave a power-packed show on the opening day with five gold medals. Dhinidhi Desinghu, the promising star, smashed the Games record in 200m freestyle, with a timing of 2:03.24 to clinch gold. Dhinidhi secured her second gold of the day in 100m butterfly (1:03.62).

In men’s 200m freestyle, Srihari Nataraj won gold with a time of 1:50.57, ahead of compatriot Aneesh S Gowda (1:52.42) and Kerala’s Sajan Prakash (1:53.73).Karnataka’s men’s and women’s 4x100m freestyle relay teams also took prize in the podium.