ISSF World Cup: Elavenil Valarivan wins her first senior gold medal in 10m air rifle

There is definitely more than one reason for India to celebrate a champion in P V Sindhu at the moment, but like Sindhu, 20-year-old shooter Elavenil Valarivan helped her country brim with pride as she won a World Cup gold in the women’s 10m Air Rifle category, joining her Indian counterparts, Apurvi Chandela and Anjali Bhagwat. This was Elevenil’s maiden senior shooting gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in Rio De Janeiro. 

While India raced to unprecedented heights of glory clinching three gold medals in the four editions of the World Cup, Chinese Taipei’s Ying-Shin Lin claimed bronze as well as secured two Olympic berths for herself. With India already having confirmed their two quota places, the second quota was secured by Iran. Elavenil, a three-time Junior World Cup medallist maintained an unassailable lead for the most part of the game, before finishing with an overall score of 251.7 in the final over Britain’s Seonaid Mcintosh with a score of 250.6. While her counterpart and also World No.1 Apurvi Chandela claimed two medals in the three world cups so far. The other Indians who shone through were Anjum Moudgil and Mehuli Ghosh. Anjum, who had won silver at the ISSF World Championship 2018, finished at sixth in what was her third World Cup final of this year. 

Mehuli Ghosh was shooting in Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) where she topped clinching 629.1.

Annu Raj Singh, who made a steady comeback to the Indian team, shot a commanding 292 in the precision stage to finish in the 12th position ahead of rapid-fire, while Chinky Yadav shot an exhilarating 290 to finish in the 17th position in the women’s 25m pistol. Austria’s Jan Lochbihler scripted a stunning world record with an eye-popping shot of 1188 in the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions competition. Sanjeev Rajput of India shot 1170 in the first elimination round to finish in the 14th position and climbed to the qualifying round of the tournament, and so has compatriot Parul Kumar who finished 10th with an overall score of 1169. A total of three finals is scheduled to be held on Thursday morning, which will begin with the Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions, to be followed by Women’s 25m Pistol and Men’s 10m Air Pistol.