Junior shooters deliver 2 gold and a silver for India

Elavenil Valarivan also won the individual silver in women’s 10m air rifle, going down narrowly to China’s double senior World Cup gold-medalist Shi Mengyao, in the final.  Elavenil shot 249.8 to Shi’s 250.5. The 17-year old Shreya Agarwal won the bronze with an effort of 228.4 in the final. 

Four podium finishes on the sixth day of competition took India’s tally to 18, its best-ever showing in the International Shooting Sport Federation’s (ISSF) premier tournament. Hazarika was tied with Iran’s Mohammed Amir Nekounam on 250.1 once the field was pruned to the regulation top eight.

But the 17-year-old Indian clinched the yellow metal after prevailing in a shoot-off at the prestigious tournament. The bronze went to Russia’s Grigorii Shamakov, who managed a score of 228.6 in the final. As the individual shots began, Hazarika strung together a fantastic series of high 10s and by the end of the 20th shot, he was leading the field by 0.5. 

He held on to the lead till the 22nd shot from Nekounam. Then a 9.4 for his 23rd shot meant that at the end of the allotted 24 shots, both Hazarika and Nekounam found themselves tied at 250.1 points each. In the shoot-off, Hazarika had the last laugh with a 10.3 to the Iranian’s 10.2.

In the women’s 10m air rifle, the team of Elavenil (631), Shreya Agarwal (628.5) and Manini Kaushik (621.2) then produced a sensational performance to total 1880.7 for a gold with a world record to boot. The score by Elavenil, a junior world cup gold-medalist, was also a new junior world record. The men’s team, comprising Hazarika, Divyansh Panwar and Arjun Babuta, finished fourth with a combined total of 1872.3. 

There was disappointment for the country in the senior men’s 50m rifle three position competition as none of the Indians in fray managed to make the cut for the finals.