PUNE: Asian Champion and Junior World gold medallist Elavenil Valarivan celebrated her baptism of senior ranks with a 10m Air Rifle gold medal at the Shooting World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, as the Brazilian city hosted its first ISSF competition since the 2016 Olympics.
Elavenil’s accession into senior category with a dominating performance denoted India’s grip over Women’s Air Rifle—this was third gold medal for India in four World Cups this season.
India’s domination was so evident that of the three shooters in the fray, two made it to the eight-woman final. While Elavenil was fourth after the qualification round having scored 629.4 her compatriot and world championship silver medalist Anjum Moudgil also reached her third world cup final of the year, only to finish fifth and miss out on a medal.
Elavenil extended India’s dominance in Air Rifle with a score of 251.7 in the finals, leaving behind Seonaid Mcintosh of Britain to settle for silver with 250.6.
Chinese Taipei’s Ying-Shin Lin won bronze as well as one of the two Tokyo 2020 quota places on offer. The second quota was won by Iran’s Armina Sadeghian (208.5), who finished fourth overall.
India had already won the maximum possible Olympic quota places through Anjum and Apurvi. The silver medallist Seonaid had also won the Olympic quota in the 50-metre rifle 3-position event in the World Championship.
EARLY LEAD HELPS
The youngster, who received her first lessons in shooting at the Gun For Glory Shooting Academy in Balewadi ranges and now based in Gujarat, had earlier topped her senior Anjum Moudgil in qualification, returning a quality 629.4 to the World No 2’s 629.1 as they took the fourth and fifth spots in the 8-woman final.
World No 1 and finals world record holder Apurvi Chandela missed out by a whisker, finishing 11th with a score of 627.7. In fact, such has been India’s riches in the event that Mehuli Ghosh, shooting in the non-competitive MQS section shot a 629.1, which would have earned her a final spot as well.
THE FINAL PROGRESSION
Anjum led the finals field after the first five shots as Seonaid began as the eight finalists bunched closely at the top.
The Briton then attempted to pull ahead after 10 shots as Anjum had a poor second series to go down to fifth by the 12th shot. However, Elavenil shot brilliantly and caught up to lead ahead of Seonaid, as the American Mary Tucker became first to be eliminated and finished 8th after the 12 shots.
The Korean Kim, then went out in seventh after the 14th shot at which stage there were three athletes, including Elavenil and Seonaid, who were jointly in the lead with a score of 147.1 and Anjum was in fourth place.
The women were now going ballistic with high 10s flowing from their rifle barrels and none ceding an inch. Anjum missed out in fifth place as in a fight with Romania’s Laura-Georgeta Coman and with 0.1 separating them, she shot a 10.1 to Coman’s 10.4 to go out in fifth.
Elavenil then dished out a master-class with a series of high 10s, which saw her take a lead of 1.4 with four of the 24 shots to go. Seonaid and Elavenil battled till the end, but it was the Indian who prevailed for a milestone win.
As many as 541 athletes from 72 countries are participating in this World Cup competing for the 16 Quota places for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
RESULTS
Women:
10m Air Rifle: 1. Elavenil Valarivan (Ind) 251.7 (629.4); 2. Seonaid Mcintosh (Gbr) 250.6 (628.9); 3. Ying-Shin Lin (Tpe) 229.9 (628.9); 6. Anjum Moudgil (Ind) 166.8 (629.1); 11. Apurvi Chandela (Ind) 627.7. MQS: Mehuli Ghosh (Ind) 629.1.
ELAVENIL FACTBOX
- Valarivan made her senior debut and scored 251.7 points in the finals to win the coveted gold even as the likes of Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela finished out of the medal bracket.
- The 20-year-old became only the third Indian shooter after Apurvi Chandela and Anjali Bhagwat to win a senior ISSF World Cup gold in the 10m Air Rifle event.
- Earlier this year, Valarivan had narrowly missed a place on the podium at the Munich World Cup where she finished fourth in the final with a score of 208.3.
- Elavenil is a junior World Cup gold-medallist besides being an Asian champion. She has four gold medals in the Junior World Cups to her credit, apart from the Junior World Championship silver.
I am really thrilled with this achievement and want to thank my mentor Gagan sir, my coach Neha ma’am & my mental trainer Kirtika ma’am who have trained me so well and without their correct guidance, this would not have been possible.”
— Elavenil Valarivan, Junior World Cup gold medallist on winning her first senior World Cup gold medal
PISTOL AND RIFLE 3P SHOOTERS IN LINE FOR MEDALS
- In the Women’s 25m Pistol, Annu Raj Singh, making a comeback to the India squad shot a solid 292 in the precision stage to set herself in 12th spot ahead of the Rapid Fire round on Thursday, preceding the final.
- Compatriot Chinky Yadav shot 290 to lie in 17th place while Abhidnya Patil shot 286 to be in 43rd spot.
- India’s Sanjeev Rajput shot 1170 in the first elimination round to sail through with a 14th spot finish. Parul Kumar, who finished 10th in his elimination round with a score of 1169 and Chain Singh (1163) were in the 27th position to make the cut.
