Elavenil, Sonam in 10m final, India clinch team silver

New Delhi: Indian shooters reached the podium at the Asian Games on Sunday when the women’s 10m air rifle team won a silver medal. The Indian trio, comprising former world No.1 and two-time Olympian Elavenil Valarivan and Games debutantes Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod tallied 1898 points to finish behind China who took gold with a world record score of 1904.2. Japan was third with a team score of 1897.1 points.

China and India also took the top-two spots in the Hangzhou Asian Games, where the Chinese team of Han Jiayu, Huang Yuting, and Wang Zhilin set the Games record.

The qualification round saw two shooters each from China, Japan, South Korea, and India enter the eight-shooter final.

China’s 19-year-old world No. 1 Wang Zifei qualified in first position with an Asian record score of 636.8, surpassing compatriot Liu Yafei’s 635.4, which she hit at last year’s Asian Championships in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Following Wang into the final were South Korean world No.5 Ban Hyojin who scored 634.9 and India’s Sonam Maskar who entered the final on her Games debut with 634.1.

The experienced Elavenil Valarivan made the final in seventh place (633.5) while compatriot and Asian Games debutant Vidarsa Vinod finished 12th with 630.4, missing the cut.

India won seven gold, nine silver and six bronze medals for a total of 22 medals in shooting at the Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou. Ten of those 22 medals came in individual events but only Sift Kaur Samra (50m 3Positions) and Palak Gulia (10m air pistol) won individual golds. It will be interesting to see if Elavenil or Sonam can finish on the podium.