Elavenil Valarivan clinches gold in women’s 10m air rifle at Asian Championships

Elavenil Valarivan (Photo: PTI)

India's Elavenil Valarivan produced a composed and clinical performance to capture the gold medal in the women's 10m air rifle event at the 16th Asian Shooting Championships on Friday, marking her first individual podium of the tournament.

The 26-year-old shooter from Tamil Nadu, a seasoned campaigner with multiple World Cup golds and strong showings at the World Championships, delivered a stellar final score of 253.6 to top the podium in a high-pressure final. Her precision and poise under pressure edged out China's Xinlu Peng, who took silver with 253.0, while South Korea's Eunji Kwon settled for bronze with 231.2.

Valarivan's gold is only the second senior individual title for India at this year's Asian Championships, with the nation currently leading the overall medal tally, driven largely by the dominance of its junior shooters. The first senior gold had come via Anantjeet Singh Naruka in the men's skeet event, while Manu Bhaker, a double Olympic medallist, had earlier secured a bronze in the women's 10m air pistol event.

Bhaker shot 219.7 in the eight-women finals to finish in third position. The 23-year-old entered the final after finishing third in the qualifications with a score of 583. The trio of Bhaker, Suruchi Singh and Palak finished third in the team event with a total score of 1730.

This victory was particularly sweet for Valarivan, who had already earned a silver and bronze in the team events, but was yet to make her mark individually. Her path to the final wasn't straightforward, she qualified eighth with a score of 630.7, just managing to enter the eight-shooter medal round.

Interestingly, Mehuli Ghosh, another prominent Indian in the event, also reached the final and finished fourth with a score of 208.9. Ghosh had initially placed 10th in qualification with 630.3, but was elevated into the final as two higher-ranked Indian shooters, Arya Borse (633.2) and Sonam Maskar (630.5), were competing solely for ranking points (RPO) and stepped aside from the medal contention.

With several more events still to be contested in Changwon, India's shooting contingent looks well poised to finish the championship on a high, buoyed by strong performances across both senior and junior divisions.

(With PTI inputs)