Teenage shooter Elavenil Valarivan claimed the women’s air rifle gold while India swept the podium in junior men 25m sport pistol at the 28th meeting of Shooting Hopes junior international championship in Plzen, Czech Republic on Friday.
The 18-year-old Elavenil shot 250.8 in the final to get the better of Italy’s Nicole Gabrielli (249.7) by 1.1 point. She had also topped the qualification with 628.0. Aleksandra Szutko of Poland won the bronze with 228.2. Shreya Agrawal, the other Indian shooter in the final, finished fourth with 206.6.
Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu won the 25, sport pistol gold with 586 points, one point ahead of Vijayveer Sidhu. Udhayveer Sidhu bagged the bronze medal with 582.
“It feels great but more importantly it was important to maintain the consistency of points. I am happy, that I could score as planned. These are important exposure tournaments for Asian Games and my goal is to do well there,” Elavenil said after her win.
Among other notable results for India on the day, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar reached the final of the junior men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event and finished fourth with a score of 433.
On Thursday, India had a good run as well with teenager Manu Bhaker winning her ninth international gold medal in the last year and Anish Bhanwala adding to the gold count.
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