Elavenil Valarivan, two-time Olympian and one of India’s most accomplished women’s air rifle shooters ever, improved one spot on her record at the revered Olympic Shooting range in Munich, clinching bronze medal on Day One of competitions at the year’s third ISSF World Cup (Rifle/Pistol) stage. Ela bowed out after the 22nd shot of the 24-shot final with a score of 232.1, settling for third place behind gold medal winner Wang Zifei (252.7) of China and silver medalist Eunji Kwon (252.6) of Korea.
The Indian also notched up the qualification national record earlier in the day, finishing second with a score of 635.9, which is almost 10.6 per shot over 60 shots. However, Wang, who completed a hat-trick of world cup wins this year, bettered Ela with a world record (also junior world record) qualification score of 637.9 to top the table.
The earlier mark of 636.9 by Germany’s Anna Janssen was shot in the New Delhi World Cup Finals last year. With both the reigning Olympic champion (Ban Hyojin of Korea) and World Champion (Han Jiayu of China), qualifying for the top-eight final, it was always going to be a high-quality, intense final, and so it was.
The difference between the first five shooters after the first five-shot series was a mere 0.6, after the second it was 0.1 between the first four, and when Norwegian Rifle ace Jeanette Hegg Duestad went out in fourth after the 20th single shot, the difference between her and Ela, the leader at that stage was 0.6.
After hitting nothing below 10.1, Ela’s 21st shot scored 9.8, and that was enough for her to miss out on gold as she fell 0.2 short of Kwon after 22 shots, despite closing out with a high 10.6. The only non-Olympian in the final was Turkiye’s Elif Altun, who was the first to bow out after the 12th single shot.
Ela’s scores in the final were 10.7, 10.4, 10.8, 10.3, 10.7; 10.4,10.9,10.8,10.3,10.5; 10.8; 10.6; 10.5; 10.1; 10.4; 10.1; 10.7; 10.8; 10.3; 10.7; 9.8; and 10.6
Other Indians in action on the day:
Women’s 10m Air Rifle: Ananya Naidu- 632.4 (13th on debut); Arya Borse- 628.2 (50th)
Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (Eliminations): Chain Singh-591; Swapnil Kusale- 585; Kiran Ankush Jadhav- 580 (all three into qualifications)
Top eight qualify after Qualification on Wednesday (Final on the same day):
Women’s 25m Pistol (Day 1 of Qualification- Precision stage): Esha Singh - 98,99,97=294 (4th); Manu Bhaker - 97,98,95=290 (12th); Simranpreet Kaur Brar - 95,97,96=288 (19th)
Top eight qualify after Day 2 Rapid-Fire stage on Wednesday (Final on same day):
Men’s 10m Air Pistol: Nishant Rawat - 582 (fifth in Qualification relay 1); Aditya Malra - 578 (18th in qualification relay 1); Varun Tomar - To Shoot in Qualification relay 2.