Tokyo Olympian and former World No 1 in women’s 10m air rifle Elavenil Valarivan was on top of the competition again at the ongoing ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, claiming gold in her pet event, and in her favourite competition venue.
The 24-year-old gold medal show at Rio was about reemphasizing why she was numero uno in the world at one point.
Qualifying as the eighth and final shooter to make the final with a score of 630.5, the task ahead of Elavenil was enormous, but the young athlete was equal to the challenge and upstaged a field that had several heavyweights like Oceanne Muller of France.
A Tokyo Olympian like the Indian, Muller topped the qualification with a score of 633.7 to finish ahead of China Yu Zhang (633.6), another Tokyo Olympian, and Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway (633.2) who had finished 4th at Tokyo Olympics.
With a field as imposing as the final in Rio, Elavenil showed the stuff champions are made of by stepping up admirably when the need arose.
She topped the podium with a score of 252.2 to leave Muller (251.9) and China Jiale Zhang (229.0) to battle it out for silver and bronze, respectively.
The gold also proved why Rio is a happy hunting ground for Elavenil, having won gold at the 2019 World Cup. The same year, Elavenil was the top name at the World Cup Final at Putian, which also announced her anointment as World No 1.
Feeling good over the achievementÔÇØ, Elavenil said she had been preparing for the World Cup and other tournaments for a while, specifically on her technique and some other aspects with the rifle.
Asked if this was a coming together of all the hard work, she replied in the affirmative. Elavenil said she drew heavily from the memories of her 2019 triumph here. Rio has always been special to me and I am happy I could keep up my performance.ÔÇØ
The weather at Rio, fluctuating from extreme heat to rain and then calm on the day of the final, was a test of skill and temperament and Elavenil said it was good preparation for the future.
The weather change was quite a bit but it was a good experience for us shooters keeping in mind for upcoming major tournaments where we will be competing in different conditions,ÔÇØ she said.
In the men 10m air rifle, Sandeep Singh, India lone contender, shot a qualification of 628.2 to finish in 14th place.
Just like Elavenil, Danilo Dennis Sollazzo of Italy also qualified as the eighth shooter to make the final and went on to win the gold with 251.0 (629.4), improving the colour from the 2022 Cairo World Cup where he won the silver.
Maximilian Dallinger of Germany won the silver with 250.0 (631.1) while Tokyo Olympian Jon Hermann Hegg of Norway took the bronze with 228.4 (631.4).
Italy leads the medal tally with two gold while India are joint third with Armenia with one gold each.