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Shooting: Ravinder wins 50m pistol, Elavenil takes air rifle bronze
A late slip deprives Elavenil win, while India also take the team bronze in the Cairo World Championships
New Delhi: A late slip notwithstanding, double Olympian Elavenil Valarivan came up with a fine performance to win bronze in the women’s 10m air rifle event on the first competition day at the World Championships in Cairo on Saturday.
The 26-year-old was on course to take the top spot but a below par 10.0 on the 19th shot triggered the drop. Having slipped to third from the pole position, she had a poor 9.9 on the 22nd shot to bow out in third place with a score of 232.0. This is Elavenil’s first individual Worlds medal to add to multiple Asian titles.
South Korea’s 2024 Paris Olympics champion Ban Hyo-jin won gold with a score of 255, while China’s junior world champion Wang Zifei, who trailed Elavenil till the 19th shot, took silver with a score of 254 in the highly-competitive Olympic event. Elavenil was tied for the top spot with Hyo-jin at 148.5 after the 14th shot. She then shot a superb 10.7 and 10.9 on the 16th and 17th shots to emerge leader, but pressure got to her in the end.
The Indian women’s team of Elavenil, Meghana Sajjanar and Shreya Agrawal took bronze with an aggregate of 1893.3. China (1901.7) and South Korea (1899.9) took gold and silver respectively.
In the qualification round, whose scores are considered for team medals, Elavenil shot 633.4, while Meghana and Shreya scored 631.2 and 628.7 respectively.
Elavenil’s aggregate helped her make it to the eight-player individual final in fifth place, while Meghana finished 17th and Shreya 33rd.
In the men’s 10m air rifle, Olympian Arjun Babuta ended seventh while former world champion Rudrankksh Patil and Vishal Singh ended up 13th and 61st respectively.
Babuta, who had missed bronze at the Paris Olympics by a whisker, qualified for the final in seventh place with a score of 632.5, while 2022 world champion Rudrankksh shot 631.4 to miss the medal round. Vishal tallied 627.1 to finish 61st in a field of 109 shooters.
In the final, Babuta was the second shooter to be eliminated. German stalwart Maximilian Dallinger won gold, tallying 252.0, while Victor Lindgren (251.7) clinched silver. Double Olympic gold medallist Sheng Lihao of China (229.9) settled for the bronze.
The Indian team of Babuta, Rudrankksh and Vishal totalled 1891 to finish fourth while China aggregated 1898.4 for a world record score.
Ravinder wins
Ravinder Singh achieved the biggest success in his career by winning gold in 50m pistol, a non-Olympic discipline.
The 29-year-old Naib Subedar in the Indian Army had won individual and team bronze in the 2023 edition of the Worlds in Baku.
Ravinder, who has been in and out of the India squad since 2019, shot 569 to take the top spot ahead of Kim Cheong-yong of South Korea, who shot 556, and Individual Neutral Athlete (AIN) Anton Aristarkhov (556), who settled for the bronze.
The Indian team comprising Ravinder (569), Kamaljeet (540) and Yogesh Kumar (537) took the silver with an aggregate of 1646. South Korea totalled 1648 to claim gold, while Ukraine took the bronze with a combined total of 1644.
India are third on the medals table with one gold, one silver and two bronze. China lead the charts with three gold, a silver and a bronze.
