India's Elavenil wins Air Rifle gold at Junior World Cup

Meanwhile, Arjun Babuta won bronze in the men's Air Rifle event, finishing behind Yuqi Liu of China and Zalan Pekler of Hungary.

Elavenil Valarivan and her teammate Hriday Hazarika set a new junior world record with a score of 502.1 in the 10m rifle mixed team event at the Asian Championship. (File Photo)

Elavenil Valarivan gave a bright start for India with the individual and team gold medals in women’s air rifle in the Junior World Cup in Sydney on Thursday.

After qualifying brilliantly with a world junior record of 631.4, which works to a very high average of 10.5 per shot over 60 shots, Elavenil clinched the gold with a 1.1 point margin over Ying-Shin Lin of Chinese Taipei.

A member of the Gun For Glory centre, run by Olympic and World Championship medallist Gagan Narang in Pune, Elavenil in partnership with fellow trainees Shreya Agrawal and Zeena Khitta helped India to the team gold with a 7.3 point margin over Chinese Taipei.

“The way I was performing over the last few tournaments, I kind of saw this coming,’’ said Elavenil who dedicated her performance to her parents, Gagan Narang and the coaches at the academy.

“We always knew that she had the potential to be a world beater. Her performance today has vindicated our trust in her’’, said Gagan Narang.

In men’s air rifle, Arjun Babuta won the bronze and missed a better medal by 0.4 point.

In women’s trap, Soumya Gupta made the final in the fourth place but eventually finished fifth.

India was in the second place in the medals table with the two gold and a bronze, while China led with three gold medals.

In junior men’s trap, Vivaan Kapoor was in the third place, with 67 following rounds of 21, 24 and 22. Lakshay (62), Ali Aman Elahi (61) and Manavaditya Singh Rathore (60) were away from the lead pack, with Nathan Steven Argiro of Australia and Matteo Marongiu of Italy, on top with 69.

The results

Men:

10m air rifle: 1. Liu Yuqi (Chn) 247.1 (623.8); 2. Zalan Pekler (Hun) 246.0 (623.6); 3. Arjun Babuta 226.3 (623.9); 6. Shahu Tushar Mane 161.7 (621.4); 8. Surya Pratap Singh 119.4 (621.2); 9. Tejas Krishna Prasad 619.1.

Women:

10m air rifle: 1. Elavenil Valarivan 249.8 (631.4 WRJ); 2. Ying-Shin Lin (Tpe) 248.7 (629.7); 3. Wang Zeru (Chn) 228.4 (621.6); 6. Shreya Agrawal 164.8 (622.0); 7. Zeena Khitta 144.1 (623.1); 14. Bhargavi Devendranath 614.9.

Team: 1. India 1876.5 (WRJ); 2. Chinese Taipei 1869.2; 3. China 1868.3.

Trap: 1. Duan Yuwei (Chn) 36(2) 102; 2. Augusta Rose Campos-Martyn (GBR) 36(1) 101(0,1); 3. Gao Wendi (Chn) 30 (101)(0,0); 5. Soumya Gupta 18 (101)1; 11. Manisha Keer 88; 13. Kirti Gupta 79.

Team: 1. China 307 (WRJ), 2. Australia 293; 3. Italy 284; 4. India 268.