Indian shooters Elavenil Valarivan, Saurabh Chaudhary and Divyansh Singh Panwar, who finished the season as No.1 in their respective events in rifle and pistol, were presented the Golden Target award by the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) at its headquarters in Munich, Germany, on Saturday.
While Saurabh in air pistol and Divyansh in air rifle had also secured the Olympic quota this season, Elavenil did not get a chance to win the quota as Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela had won the maximum possible quota in women’s air rifle in the World Championship last year.
Elavenil, who is mentored by World Championship and Olympic medallist Gagan Narang, had won the gold in the Rio World Cup and the World Cup Final in China.
Saurabh had bagged gold medals in two World Cups in men’s air pistol, apart from all the four gold medals in the mixed air pistol with Manu Bhaker, Elavenil and Divyansh. The win had enhanced the quartet's status as No.1 by winning the gold in the World Cup Final in Putian, China.
In fact, Divyansh won the mixed air rifle gold as well, while Saurabh had to settle for the mixed air pistol silver in the World Cup Final.
The three shooters were accompanied by the president of the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI), Raninder Singh. A member of the athletes commission of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), former World and Olympic champion Abhinav Bindra was also at the function in Germany.
India had accounted for three of the 12 awards, while China and US win two each. Britain, Czech Republic, Italy, Hungary and Korea were the other countries whose shooters were awarded the Golden Target award.
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