The fast-rising Elavenil Valarivan claimed her maiden senior World Cup Gold medal, finishing on top in the women’s 10m air rifle competition to become only the third Indian to achieve the feat.
The 20-year-old’s top prize, however, did not translate into an Olympic quota for India as Apurvi Chandela and Anjum Moudgil have already secured the maximum two berths available per country in last year’s World Championships.
The fancied Chandela and Moudgil, world number one and two respectively, finished outside the medal bracket in the ISSF Rifle/Pistol Stage event here.
Moudgil finished sixth in the final with 166.8, while Chandela could not clear the qualifications, finishing 11th.
In her debut year at the senior level, Elavenil shot 251.7 in the finals to help India extend their new-found dominance in the event, leaving behind Seonaid Mcintosh of Britain, who won Silver with an effort of 250.6 on Wednesday.
Chinese Taipei’s Ying-Shin Lin won Bronze as well as one of the two Tokyo 2020 quota places on offer. The second quota was won by Iran.
Anjali Bhagwat and Chandela are the country’s other two shooters to win Gold in the event.
India has now won three out of the four World Cup Gold medals in the women’s 10m air this year.
Elavenil Valarivan said her maiden senior World Cup medal will be a “great confidence booster” as she seeks to scale greater heights in coming years.
“I am happy and this win will give me great confidence going ahead into other national and international competitions,” said the youngster.
Olympic Bronze medallist Gagan Narang has played a part in her progress and the shooter did not forget to thank him.
“I am really thrilled with this achievement and want to thank my mentor Gagan sir, my coach Neha ma’am & my mental trainer Kirtika ma’am who have trained me so well and without their correct guidance, this would not have been possible.”
Meanwhile on Thursday, Sanjeev Rajput won the Silver medal in men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event of the World Cup here, securing India’s eight quota in shooting for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
The 38-year-old shot 462.0 in the eight-man finals to finish second on the podium behind Petar Gorsa of Croatia (462.2).
China’s Zhang Changhong clinched the Bronze.
Sanjeev could have won the Gold but for a poor last shot which saw him miss his second World Cup Gold, after the one he had won in 2011, by a slender 0.2 point margin to Gorsa, who won the Olympic quota in air rifle.
Sanjeev had been denied a chance to compete in the Rio Olympics after his Olympic quota had been exchanged for a shotgun quota by the National Rifle Association of India.
Now, Sanjeev has joined India’s other quota holders Anjum Moudgil, Apurvi Chandela, Saurabh Chaudhary, Abhishek Verma, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Rahi Sarnobat and Manu Bhaker.
He had shot 392 in kneeling, 398 in prone and 390 in standing in the qualification phase, to emerge the second best, one point behind Zhang Changhong of China.
Only five shooters were eligible to win Olympic quota in the final.