Olympian Elavenil Valarivan strikes gold at Rio Shooting World Cup

PTI

Rio de Janeiro, September 17

Olympian Elavenil Valarivan won the women’s 10m air rifle event to clinch her second gold at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup Rifle/Pistol competition here.

Elavenil was perfection personified in the strong eight-woman final field, never scoring below 10.1 throughout the 24 shots.

She finished with a score of 252.2 to outgun France’s 20-year-old sensation Oceanne Muller, who won silver with 251.9. China’s Zhang Jiale bagged the bronze.

Elavenil had qualified for the final at eighth and final spot with a score of 630.5.

Muller had topped with 633.7. Two Chinese shooters Zhang Jiale and Zhang Yu (Olympian) and reigning European champion Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway were also among the finalists.

In the men’s 10m air rifle event, Sandeep Singh, India’s lone contender, shot 628.2 in qualification to finish in the 14th spot.

On Friday, Elavenil had teamed up with Sandeep in the 10m air rifle mixed team event to finish fifth with a combined score of 629.1.

The fourth and final medal round spot went to Israel, who were 0.5 points ahead of the Indian pair in the 42-team field.

While Elavenil shot 314.8, Sandeep shot 314.3 as the Indians narrowly missed a shot at bronze. Israel did win bronze eventually, while Germany won gold and the silver went to Hungary.

A 16-member Indian team was taking part in the Rio World Cup in seven Olympic events. Italy lead the medal standings with two gold while India are joint third with Armenia.