Dehradun, Jan 29 (PTI) Haryana's Asian Games bronze medallist shooter Ramita Jindal turned in a world class performance to top the qualification round in the women's 10m air rifle event at the 38th National Games here on Wednesday.

The 21-year-old Ramita, who won a bronze in the Hangzhou Asian Games and a team gold in the 2023 World Championships, shot 634.9, bettering the 634.5 by Korea's Ban Hyojin in the Paris Olympic Games qualification round, to top the chart on the first day of shooting competitions.

Also Read | PSV Eindhoven vs Liverpool, UEFA Champions League 2024-25 Live Streaming Online & Match Time in India: How To Watch UCL Match Live Telecast on TV & Football Score Updates in IST?.

Ramita's score gave her a 0.4-point margin over Arya Borse of Maharashtra. Tamil Nadu's Narmada Raju was only 0.1 points behind to be at the third place. Kerala's Vidarsa K Vinod, who was leading the chart at one stage, was fourth with 633.0 points.

Shreya Agarwal of Madhya Pradesh (632.0), Elavenil Valarivan of Gujarat (631.9), Meghana Sajjanar of Karnataka (631.2) and Manyata Singh of Odisha (630.1) completed the set of eight finalists who will do battle on Thursday.

Also Read | Brest vs Real Madrid, UEFA Champions League 2024-25 Live Streaming Online & Match Time in India: How To Watch UCL Match Live Telecast on TV & Football Score Updates in IST?.

It promises to be a riveting contest that will test the nerves of each of the shooters in the final at the brand new Trishul Shooting Range here.

Meanwhile, Punjab's Vijayveer Singh Sidhu shot 587 to emerged on top in the men's rapid fire pistol. Anish Bhanwala of Haryana (582), Neeraj Kumar of Services (579), Bhavesh Shekhawat of Rajasthan (577), Omkar Singh of Services (574) and Gurpreet Singh of Services (574) completed the list of finalists.

2012 London Olympics silver medallist Vijay Kumar of Himachal Pradesh was in the running for a place in the final, but a sub-par final series put paid to his aspirations.

Had he shot 94 instead of 90 in the four-second series in the second stage of qualification, the veteran may have forced a shoot-off for the sixth place.

Shooting is one discipline where many of the top players are taking part in the National Games.

All the shooters, who competed in the Paris Olympics last year, with the exception of double-medallist Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh, are set to be seen in action in the National Games.

Swapnil Kusale, Sarabjot Singh and Vijay Kumar will be among the Olympic medallists in action while former air rifle world champion Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil will represent his home state of Maharashtra.

In total, 364 shooters will represent 29 teams at the National Games, making shooting the star attraction of the Games.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)