Elavenil Valarivan takes silver after late stumble in Asian Games 10m air rifle, only second since Gagan Narang in 2010

Late slip notwithstanding, Elavenil Valarivan produced a sublime display of shooting in the 10m air rifle final to claim a silver at the Aichi General Shooting Range on Sunday, capping a double-medal day for the shooting contingent.

The 27-year-old led from the start until the 20th shot in the 24-shot final before local favourite Taichi Hinata stole her thunder. Ela aggregated 252.4 points while the Japanese took gold with 253.0, shattering the Games record in the process. The earlier mark was set by China's Huang Yuting, who shot 252.7 at the Hangzhou Asiad in 2023. South Korea's Ban Hyojin won the bronze.

Elavenil led until the final four shots before Hinata's late surge

The result means India's quest for an individual gold in the highly-competitive 10m air rifle event continues at the Asian Games. Ela's medal is only the sixth that Indians have won in the discipline, and is only the second silver after her mentor Gagan Narang's second-place finish in 2010.

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Ela shot with composure and precision to jump to an early lead at the end of the first series of five shots, and maintained her lead till the final four shots even though the leaderboard changed rapidly beneath her. Fellow Indian Sonam Maskar, competing in her first Asian Games, ended sixth.

Ela, Maskar and Vidarsa had earlier won team silver

This was Ela's second medal of the day, coming within a couple of hours after the team silver where she combined with Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod. The Indian trio 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 had taken the top-two spots in the Hangzhou Asian Games as well, where the Chinese team of Han Jiayu, Huang Yuting, and Wang Zhilin had set the Games record.

The qualification round saw two shooters each from China, Japan, South Korea, and India entering 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 that she hit at last year's Asian Championships in Shymkent, Kazakhstan. Following Wang into the final were world No.5 Ban Hyojin who scored 634.9 and Maskar who entered the final on her Games debut with 634.1.

The experienced Elavenil made the final in seventh place (633.5) while Asian Games debutant Vidarsa, with 630.4, finished 12th to miss 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) went all the way to win individual golds.