Elavenil Valarivan wins gold, Shambhavi Kshirsagar breaks junior record

New Delhi: Olympian Elavenil Valarivan narrowly defeated Japan’s Misaki Nobata to win gold in the 10m Air Rifle women’s event. Meanwhile, Shambhavi Kshirsagar set a new record at the Asian Junior Finals and took gold in the junior category at the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championship 20206, held at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi.

Meghana Sajjanar also made it to the podium with a bronze medal, and along with Manyata Singh and Aneesha Sharma, helped India achieve a clean sweep of the Junior women’s medals.

India maintained their dominance in the championship, winning ten gold medals on the fourth day of competition, bringing their total medal count to 43, with 27 gold, 10 silver, and eight bronze. Ojasvi Thakur also earned gold in the women’s youth category.

India began the day by dominating the podium in the 50m Men’s Pistol event, with former 10m Air Pistol World No 1 Saurabh Chaudhary taking gold. He was followed by Kamaljeet Chaudhary and current World Champion Ravinder Singh, who won silver and bronze, respectively. Additionally, Yogesh Kumar secured gold in the junior category.

In the Junior finals, Shambhavi set a new Asian Junior record of 253.7, surpassing Isha Anil Taksale's 253.1 from Jakarta in 2024. She started strongly and maintained her lead to win gold, finishing with a four-point margin over Manyata Singh, who scored 249.7. Her last eight shots were 10.7, 10.7, 10.8, 10.8, 10.9, 10.5, 10.9, and 10.7, demonstrating her dominance. Aneesha Sharma earned bronze with a final score of 227.5. Together, Shambhavi, Aneesha, and Sandrata Roy secured the team gold with a total score of 1884.2. IANS

Also Read: T20 World Cup 2026: Pakistan survive Netherlands scare in opener