Elavenil Valarivan on Wednesday became only the third Indian shooter after Apurvi Chandela and Anjali Bhagwat to win the gold medal at the senior ISSF World Cup in the 10m Air Rifle category. The 20-year-old shot gold with 251.7 points, while Seonaid Mcintosh from Great Britain took the silver with 250.6 points.
Valarivan had narrowly missed out on a medal at the ISSF World Cup in Munich as she finished fourth in the final. However, on Wednesday, Elavenil was at her best as she pipped her senior compatriots Anjum Moudgil and Apurvi Chandela.
World number 2 Anjum Moudgil (166.8 points) finished sixth at the event. Earlier, Apurvi Chandela narrowly failed to qualify for the final, finishing at 11th place in the qualifying round. The world number two Anjum has already secured a quota for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Valarivan and Moudgil had qualified for the final with scores of 629.4 and 629.1 respectively. Chandela hit 627.7 after a poor final qualification round, eventually finishing 11th, outside the eight qualification spots.
Elavenil wins gold!It’s a wonderful start to the #Shooting WorldCup in Rio as 20yr old #TOPSAthlete @elavalarivan wins a gold in women’s 10m air rifle with a score of 251.7.It’s a 1st ever Sr. WC medal for this talented shooter.We congratulate her!@KirenRijiju @DGSAI pic.twitter.com/0q3XPlYVyK— SAIMedia (@Media_SAI) August 28, 2019
#NationalSportsDay gets sweeter. @elavalarivan wins her first senior World Cupon the day GNSPF’s efforts are recognised through the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puraskar! Thanking the universe! @narendramodi @KirenRijiju @Media_SAI @RaninderSingh @OfficialNRAI pic.twitter.com/tw1Yv1X3bT— Gagan Narang (@gaGunNarang) August 28, 2019
This is Elavenil Valarivan's maiden medal at senior World Cup. The 20-year-old from Tamil Nadu had earlier won gold medals at ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney and Suhl in 2018.
