Paris Olympics: This was quite a fun final, very exciting, says Ramita after 7th-place finish (Ld)

Chateauroux, July 29 (IANS) Indian shooter Ramita Jindal found the final of the Women's 10m Air Rifle at the Paris Olympics fun to participate in and very exciting as she finished seventh in her first appearance in the mega event. Ramita ended her campaign in the Paris Olympics with seventh place in the final with a score of 145.3. In a shoot-off in Stage 2 of the final, She recorded a 10.5 while her French opponent, Oceanne Muller shot 10.8. 

The shooter from Kurukshetra said she is taking lots of learning and confidence from her performance in the quadrennial showpiece.

"I was not recovering from the previous shot but I was in the moment. I was focusing on the coming shot. I am very motivated for the next season, and I am really grateful that I was a part of the final. I got exposure to such a big competitive final. There is lots of learning and experience I am taking from here and it will definitely help me for the next season and the next Olympics," said Ramita after the finals.

Ramita further revealed what the head coach of the Indian shooting team, Suma Shirur, told her after the final. "Thomas sir was sitting behind me after the finals. He said a good job. After we came back to the preparation area, Suma (Shirur) ma'am also met me. And she said 'You already made us proud by making it to the final', but I'm glad, she's glad that I was in the final and shooting my best."

When asked about the learnings she is taking back from France, Ramita said she has got a lot of confidence that she can achieve anything with her process and training.

"I am taking away the confidence in myself that I can do anything with my process and my training. The other thing, I feel, is that the Olympics is very outcome-oriented and it becomes very important for the athletes at that time to maintain their zone and momentum and come back to the process and the moment...Just live in the present," said the 20-year-old shooter. "I think everyone around us keeps telling us that it's the Olympics and the medal is very much important for everyone. So, it's like the environment is like that; everyone is just talking about medals," she added.

Now that Ramita's Olympics campaign has come to a close, she is planning to go on a long vacation after a hectic schedule that lasted for over a year.

"I'll definitely go on holiday for a few months, of course, because we didn't get a time like for even 10 days to go for an outing because the competitions were back-to-back; sometimes domestic matches and then international. After the 2022 World Championship, I was continuously playing. So, it was quite a hectic schedule," said Ramita.

Ramita, who won silver in the team event and bronze in the individual event at the Asian Games last year, said this Olympics final was quite close and fun at the same time.

"Well, this was one of the finals I see that was very close. Everyone was just 0.1, 0.1 apart and so many shoot-offs in just one final. So, it was also not very high-scoring. But the main thing that matters is just giving that one shot at that moment when you need...This was quite a fun final, very exciting.