New Delhi: Indian shooting pair of Arjun Babuta and Elavenil Valarivan earned a gold medal for the country in the 10m air rifle mixed team event of the 16th Asian Shooting Championship in Kazakhstan on Saturday. The talented Indian pair outclassed China’s Dingke Lu and Xinlu Peng 17-11 to finish on top of the podium.
Initially, the Chinese pair made a solid start with a good show in the initial round but Indians, who faltered early on delivering shots of 9,5 and 10.1, made a strong comeback in the rounds after to claim the gold medal. By virtual of the coveted medal win, both the shooters have now won two gold medals each at the prestigious tournament.
Elavenil finishes on top of the table
Meanwhile, Elavenil finished on top of the table in the 10m air rifle women’s competition while Babuta combined with Rudrankksh Patil and Kiran Jadhav to claim the team gold in men’s 10m air rifle event. Another Indian pair of Shambhavi Shravan and Naraen Pranav earned the gold medal in 10m air rifle mixed team junior event after beating China 16-12.
The Indian team had finished third behind the two Chines teams in the qualification but since only one team from a country can compete as per the rules, the Chinese 2 team, comprising Tang Huiqui and Han Yinan, qualified for the finale after emerging on top of the qualification. The Indian team totalled 629.5 to finish behind China 2 (632.3) and China 1 (630).
Shambhavi, who exhibited a terrific show, had a series of 105.4, 105.2 and 1014.4 while Pranav started slow with 103.7 but came up with a better performance in the next two series, scoring 105.7 and 105.1. Another Indian pair in the competition, Isha Taksale and Himanshu, finished fourth with a score of 628.6 in the qualification.
(With PTI inputs)