CHENNAI: RIFLE shooters from the country are enjoying a period of prosperity at the moment. They have been a consistent bunch with multiple names stepping up. That has led to competitive spirit within the team and produced some notable results.
One such result was evident on Wednesday. Nancy, World No 30, showed India’s bench strength by claiming a gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle event of the ongoing Asian Championship, an Olympic qualifying event, in Jakarta.
As India had already secured a maximum of two Olympic quotas in the specific category, Nancy was not eligible for a quota. Granted, she had nothing much to lose and there were not many expectations. However, the manner in which she crafted this win was quite noteworthy.
After finishing behind senior compatriot, Elavenil Valarivan, in the qualification stage (among regular participants), she showed what she’s capable of in the eight-woman finals with an impressive tally of 252.8, which was deemed as Asian junior record. All her scores were above 10 and she averaged around 10.5 in the final, which is mighty impressive given that she’s just 19 and still learning her trade at the elite level.
Elavenil was also very impressive and she had to be content with a silver medal despite posting an eye-catching 252.7 herself. In a game of margins, her 9.7 effort in the 10th shot proved to be the difference between gold and silver.
Mehuli Ghosh, the third Indian in the fray, finished fourth. The trio’s collective effort helped them win gold in the team event. In the corresponding men’s event, Rudrankksh Patil claimed a bronze medal with a tally of 228.7 in the final. Arjun Babuta, the other Indian in the final, finished sixth.
Like the women’s section, the men have already secured a maximum of two quotas and were just competing to get much-needed practice ahead of the Olympics. Sandeep Singh and Divyansh Singh Panwar, who were competing for ranking points, finished second and third, respectively in the qualification stage.
