Rio de Janeiro: The fast-rising Elavenil Valarivan claimed her maiden senior World Cup gold medal, finishing on top in the women’s 10m air rifle competition to become only the third Indian to achieve the feat.
The 20-year-old’s top prize, however, did not translate into an Olympic quota for India as Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil have already secured the maximum two berths available per country in last year’s World Championships.
The fancied Chandela and Moudgil, world number one and two respectively, finished outside the medal bracket in the ISSF Rifle/Pistol Stage event here. Moudgil finished sixth in the final with 166.8, while Chandela could not clear the qualifications, finishing 11th. In her debut year at the senior level, Elavenil shot 251.7 in the finals to help India extend their new-found dominance in the event, leaving behind Seonaid Mcintosh of Britain, who won silver with an effort of 250.6 on Wednesday. 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. Anjali Bhagwat and Chandela are the country’s other two shooters to win gold in the event. India has now won three out of the four World Cup gold medals in the women’s 10m air this year. A student of English literature and one who loves to go on long drives, Elavenil is a junior World Cup gold-medallist besides being an Asian champion. It has been remarkable progress for the young shooter who held a gun for the first time as a 13-year-old in native Ahmedabad. Elavenil, who wanted to be a track and field athlete in her school days, rose to prominence after being selected for Project Leap, an initiative launched by Olympic bronze-medallist Gagan Narang to train youngsters. Elavenil’s mentor Narang always speaks highly of her. Gujarat’s Elavenil had earlier pipped her senior Moudgil in qualification, with an impressive 629.4 to the world No.2s 629.1 as they took the fourth and fifth spots through to the eight-woman final.
World number one and finals world record holder Chandela failed to qualify for the finals, finishing 11th with a score of 627.7. Such has been India’s supremacy that Mehuli Ghosh, shooting in the non-competition Minimum Qualification Score (MQS) section, shot a 629.1, which could have earned her a final spot as well. Anjum led the finals field after the first five shots. (PTI)
