Junior ISSF World Cup: It's viva Valarivan as young gun hits gold

Shooter Elavenil Valarivan celebrates after winning gold in the 10m air rifle event at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney yesterday

Indian shooter Elavenil Valarivan shattered the qualification world record before claiming the gold medal in 10m women's air rifle event of the season's first junior ISSF World Cup here yesterday. Besides her individual podium finish, Elavenil also combined with Shreya Agrawal and Zeena Khitta to claim the team gold medal. Arjun Babuta bagged his second junior world cup medal, claiming a bronze in men's 10m air rifle event.

'World record effort'
Elavenil, 18, competing in her second World Cup and first final, shot 249.8 in the women's final to claim the top individual honours. Her 631.4 in the qualification was a new world record. After a 9.6, Elavenil sealed the win with a high 10.7 in the crucial 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," the youngster said after her triumph.

Elavenil trains at Olympic medalist Gagan Narang's Gun For Glory academy. "I would like to dedicate this win to my parents and thank Gagan sir and my coaches at GFG who have been working continuously to make me a shooter capable of winning titles at the world stage," she added. Elavenil had also won a bronze medal at the FISU World Shooting Sport Championship last week. China's Wang Zeru managed to win the bronze medal with a score of 228.4 in her first World Cup appearance.

Expressing his delight at his ward Elavenil's feat, Narang, the co-founder of Gagan Narang Sports Foundation said, "We always knew that she had the potential to become a world beater and her performance today just vindicated our trust on her." India's other finalists in the event - 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. The bronze was claimed by Zhu, Wang and Gao Mingwei of China.

Silver for Babuta
Babuta, a silver medallist at last year's Asian Championship in Wako City, Japan, finished below Yuqi Liu of China (247.1) and Zalan Pekler (246) of Hungary, with a score of 226.3. The other Indian shooters - Surya Pratap Singh and Shahu Tushar Mane - finished sixth and eighth respectively.

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