Ravinder crowned world champion, Elavenil bags bronze

The Indian contingent could not have asked for a better start to its campaign at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championship Rifle/Pistol in Cairo as Ravinder Singh won the gold medal in the men's 50m pistol final, which was the first final of the event.

Two-time Olympian and ace rifle shooter Elavenil Valarivan then capped a wonderful day as she clinched bronze, which was her first individual Worlds medal in the women's 10m air rifle final. The reigning Olympics champion Ban Hyojin of South Korea won the gold medal.

Earlier, Ravinder shot 569 points to finish on top amidst 47 competitors in the qualification round. Ravinder, Kamaljeet (540, 20th) and Yogesh Kumar (537, 24th) also won the team silver.

Elavenil scored a scintillating 633.4 points in the women's 10m air rifle qualification round to take the fifth qualifying spot, while Ban booked her ticket in the eighth and final place with 633 points. China's Han Jiayu, whom Ban eventually dethroned, topped qualification with 635.1. Wang Zifei, the world record holder from China, also made the cut for the finals. She won the silver medal.

Elavenil showed her form with an opening shot of 10.8 and did well to stay in the fourth position after the first two series of five shots. She then moved into the joint lead with Ban after the 14th shot.

Elavenil took the sole lead in the 24-shot final with a perfect score of 10.9 on her 17th, but then slipped to third position with a below par effort of 10.0 on her 19th shot. A 10.6 on her 20th, her last shot, confirmed the bronze medal as both Ban and Wang went to fight for the final two medals. The Korean finished with 255.0 to win the gold with the Chinese a point behind.

"Definitely one of the most intense finals that I have ever been a part of," Elavenil said after the final.

The Indian team comprising Elavenil, Meghana Sajjanar (631.2, 17th) and Shreya Agrawal (628.7, 33rd) won the team gold.

Among other results of the day, Anish Bhanwala shot 291 in stage one of the men's 25m rapid-fire pistol qualifications while Sameer shot 286 and Adarsh Singh shot 285. They come back on Sunday for stage two with the top six going through to the medal round.

In the women's 50m pistol, Priyanka Patel finished sixth with a score of 533, while Sakshi Suryavanshi was ninth with 532 and Parisha Gupta shot 531 to finish 11th.