Elavenil Valarivan continued her scintillating run of form as she clinched her second consecutive gold medal in 10m air rifle at the ongoing ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl on Monday. China’s Zeru Wang (250.9) and Ying-Shin Lin 9229.5) from Chinese Taipei won the silver and bronze respectively.
The 18-year-old scored 251.7 in the final to add to her gold won at the Junior World Cup in Sydney in March after shooting the then junior world record in qualification.
2018 Commonwealth Games medallist Mehuli Ghosh also reached the final, but finished sixth with a total score of 164.2.
The two Indians had earlier topped the qualification with a superb, consistent display of shooting. Elavenil was first with a score 630.5 with Ghosh a close second with a score of 630.2. Qian Xiu Adele Tan was third with 628.6.
In the final, Elavenil kept up a steady strong of scores with only three scores below 10 – which were 9.9, 9.8, and a 9.9 which came on the final shot.
She also helped India clinch the team bronze in the event, partnering Shreya Agrawal and Zeena Khitta for a combined score of 1871. Team China won gold and Singapore won silver, both with junior world record scores.
India have seven medals from the competition so far with three gold, one silver and three bronze medals.
In March, Elavenil won gold at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney with a then world record score of 631.4 in the qualification. At the recently-concluded selection trials at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range, she has bettered that with 632.2.
Also read: Meet national champion Elavenil Valarivan, a young gun to watch out for
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