Participating in the second ISSF competition of her career, India’s Elavenil Valarivan Elavenil pocketed the 10m Air Rifle Women Junior gold in Sydney (AUS), where the first ISSF Junior World Cup of the season is currently underway.
Elavenil — who placed 28th in this event at last year’s Junior World Championship in Suhl (GER) — secured the win with a fantastic and decisive 10.7 in her 24th shot, compensating the 9.6 she nailed with her previous one and definitely besting Chinese Taipei’s Lin Ying-Shin.
The Indian 18-year-old claimed the brightest medal with 249.8 points, also signing, at the end of the qualification round, a new Qualification World Record with the score of 631.4 points.
Lin — ranked 70th in the World Ranking in this event after placing 7th at last year’s World Cup stage in New Delhi (IND) — took silver with 248.7 points, while Chinese shooter Wang Zeru (18) pocketed bronze by recording 228.4 points in her first ISSF start.
Wang was followed by her teammate Zhu Yingjie — gold medalist in this event at last year’s Junior World Championship in Suhl (GER) — and by Singapore’s Martina Lindsay Veloso, currently ranked 47th in the world in Air Rifle. The Chinese 18-year-old finished 4th with 206.1 points, while Veloso closed in 5th place with 185.9 points.
India’s second and third finalists followed in 6th and 7th position respectively: 17-year-old Shreya Agrawal finished with 164.8 points, while Zeena Khitta (16) closed her match with 144.1 points.
Eliminated after shot number 12, Australia’s Victoria Michelle Venning Rossiter (16) won the warmest applause from the crowd, placing 8th with 122.2 points.
India’s Elavenil, Khitta and Agrawal also climbed atop the team podium taking gold, while Chinese Taipei’s Lin, Tsai Yi-Ting and Hung Chen-Ching finished in 2nd place. The team bronze medal was awarded to Zhu, Wang and Gao Mingwei of the People’s Republic of China.
The ISSF Junior World Cup 1 in Sydney (AUS) will continue tomorrow with two more finals: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Junior, scheduled at 1:15 pm (UTC+11:00), and the Trap Women Junior, scheduled at 4:00 pm.
The competition will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results of the competition, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.