Olympics qualifiers: Nancy’s teen spirit gets her gold medal

Jakarta, January 10

Teenage shooter Nancy and Olympian Elavenil Valarivan came up with a grand performance in the women’s 10m air rifle, clinching gold and silver, respectively, at the Asia Olympics qualifiers here today.

Teenager Nancy, the junior world team champion, shot a superb 252.8 in the final field of eight to clinch the top spot.

Compatriot Elavenil was unlucky to miss out on gold by a fraction of a point, aggregating 252.7. India narrowly missed a clean sweep in the event after Mehuli Ghosh finished fourth with 210 points, behind China’s Shen Yufan.

The trio also won the team gold by a distance over Singapore.

Earlier in the men’s 10m air rifle event, Rudrankksh Patil clinched bronze in the individual event as Arjun Babuta finished sixth in the final. The duo also won the team bronze along with Sri Karthik Sabari Raj Ravishankar.

India’s world champion marksman Rudrankksh settled for bronze after shooting a 228.7 in the final, which was won by Ma Sihan of China (251.4), while South Korea’s Daehan Choe bagged silver.

Rudrankksh had qualified for the eight-shooter final placed third with a score of 630.4, while Babuta (629.6) was fourth going into the medal round.

Esha, Rhythm in contention

The day also witnessed the first day of qualification of the women’s 25m pistol, in which India is looking to win one of the two available quota places.

Esha Singh was the best Indian at the end of the precision round, shooting a 291 to be placed third. Rhythm Sangwan was fifth with a 290, while Simranpreet Kaur Brar shot a 287 and was 12th among the 50-strong field.

What the seniors could not do, the junior women did, as Isha Taksale (253.1), Khyati Chaudhary (251.2) and Anvii Rathod (227.7) finished 1-2-3 in the 10m air rifle women junior competition.