Dehradun, Jan 30: Narmada Nithin Raju, a former World Cup champion, triumphed over a competitive field that featured Asian Games medallist Ramita Jindal and Olympian Elavenil Valarivan, setting a new national record and just narrowly missing the world record in the women’s 10m air rifle event during the 38th National Games held here on Thursday.
Narmada, representing Tamil Nadu, secured gold with a score of 254.4, outpacing Maharashtra’s Arya Borse (252.5) and Ramita (230.4) in the final featuring eight competitors.
Her performance broke the previous national record of 252.9, established by Olympian Apurvi Chandela at the 2019 World Cup in New Delhi. The world record stands at 254.5, set by China’s Huang Yuting at the ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi last year.
At only 23, Narmada achieved her third significant milestone in this event, having previously won the 10m air rifle mixed team gold alongside Rudrankksh Patil at the 2023 Cairo World Cup and clinching bronze at the World Cup in Bhopal that same year.
Demonstrating both confidence and composure, Narmada, who finished third in the qualification round on Wednesday, delivered an impressive series of scores, showcasing her dominance against her esteemed competitors in the final.
She consistently shot high scores, with three of her shots landing at the maximum of 10.9 and two others scoring 10.8 out of her total of 24 shots. Remarkably, none of her shots fell below 10.
Arya Borse of Maharashtra, 22, also had an exceptional performance and would have typically claimed top honors with her score of 252.5. However, she was unaware that Narmada would set a record-breaking score in the final.
Meanwhile, Ramita, 21, who had an outstanding qualification round score of 634.9, finishing at the top, had to settle for bronze despite her excellent performance, consistently achieving 10-plus scores on Thursday.
Shooting has emerged as one of the standout sports at the National Games, with many top athletes, including those who participated in the recent Paris Olympics—except for double medalist Manu Bhaker and Esha Singh—all competing. A total of 364 shooters are representing 29 teams, making shooting a key highlight of the Games. (PTI)
