NEW DELHI: Olympian Elavenil Valarivan held her nerve to fend off a strong challenge from Japan's Misaki Nobata and clinch the women's 10m air rifle gold, while Meghana Sajjanar also climbed the podium with a bronze medal at the Asian Championship here on Saturday.
The trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Arya Borse and Meghana Sajjanar stood atop the podium in the team event, capping a memorable day for India’s women’s rifle shooters at the Karni Singh Range.
In the junior women's 10m air rifle event, Shambhavi Kshirsagar shattered the Asian Junior finals record en route to gold as India swept the podium, with Manyata Singh and Aneesha Sharma claiming the other two medals in a superb display of marksmanship.
The trio of Shambhavi, Aneesha and Sandrata Roy also combined to clinch the team gold, finishing ahead of Kazakhstan.
Elavenil was placed fifth after the first two five-shot series in the final but the young rifle ace steadily clawed her way back, surging into the lead by the 18th shot. She held her composure to the end to stay atop the pack, winning with a score of 252.0. Misaki finished her final strongly with back-to-back 10.8s, but Elavenil held firm, firing a series of high-value shots in the elimination stage, including a 10.9, to seal gold.
Misaki (251.5) and Meghana (229.5) took the silver and bronze respectively. Arya Borse, who was in medal positions until the 18th shot, slipped out of contention after a low 9.8, followed by two 10.2s.
The Indian trio of Elavenil, Arya and Meghana also clinched the team gold with a combined score of 1892.6, followed by Japan (1879.7) and Kazakhstan (1875.6).
In the junior women's 10m air rifle final, Shambhavi Kshirsagar set a new Asian Junior record with a stunning score of 253.7, eclipsing the 253.1 set by Isha Anil Taksale in Jakarta in 2024.
Dominant from the outset, she maintained the momentum throughout to clinch gold by a commanding four-point margin over Manyata, who finished with 249.7.
Shambhavi's last eight shots read, 10.7, 10.7, 10.8, 10.8, 10.9, 10.5, 10.9 and 10.7 highlighting her dominance. Aneesha secured bronze with a final score of 227.5.
Shambhavi, Aneesha and Sandrata combined to clinch the team gold with an impressive total of 1884.2, finishing well ahead of Kazakhstan (1854.4).
India also swept the podium in the men's 50m pistol event, with former 10m air pistol world No. 1 Saurabh Chaudhary clinching gold, followed by Kamaljeet Chaudhary and reigning world champion Ravinder Singh taking silver and bronze respectively.
Yogesh Kumar added to the haul by winning gold in the junior category of the event.