New Delhi: Gujarat girl Elavenil Valarivan shattered the qualification world record on her way to gold in the 10m women’s air rifle event of the season’s first International Shooting Sport Federation Junior World Cup rifle/pistol/shotgun in Sydney, Australia, on Thursday and then doubled the feat with the team gold alongside Shreya Agrawal and Zeena Khitta.
Arjun Babuta bagged his second junior world cup medal, claiming bronze in the men’s 10m air rifle event.
The 18-year-old Elavenil, competing in her second World Cup, shot 249.8 in the final to claim the top individual honours after a world record 631.4 in qualifying.
After a 9.6, Elavenil sealed the win with a high 10.7 in the 24th shot, getting the better of Chinese Taipei’s Lin Ying-Shin.
“I am really glad with my performance here in Sydney. I have been shooting really well and I knew the way I have been performing over the past few months, a victory of this magnitude was around the corner,” Elavenil, who is trained by Olympic medallist Gagan Narang at his Gun For Glory academy, said.
China’s Wang Zeru took bronze with a score of 228.4 in her first World Cup appearance.
India’s other finalists — Shreya and Zeena — finished sixth and seventh respectively, enough to clinch the team gold medal ahead of Chinese Taipei’s Lin, Tsai Yi-Ting and Hung Chen-Ching. Bronze went to Zhu, Wang and Gao Mingwei of China.
