Six Indian rifle-wielders went into Day 1 of the ISSF Shooting World Championships hoping to finish among the medals, earning a Los Angeles Olympics quota in the process. Five of them were not even able to make the finals of the ongoing Worlds in Doha.
Elavenil Valarivan, who has consistently made her way into the medal rounds of the 10m event – be it at the Paris Olympics or at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games – found herself in the last eight, but finished sixth. She missed out on a quota in a tight final that was for the large part, decided by decimals.
The men’s rifle trio of Parth Mane, Himanshu Dhillion and Parth Makhija, all juniors not too long ago, faltered badly. In an event where the colossal shadow of China’s Sheng Lihao towers over all, the Indian men’s team was nowhere near the best in the world.
Lihao finished with a qualification score of 637.2 (the next best score was 2.5 points behind him) and displayed the sheer gulf the Chinese ace has maintained in a sport of volatile changes, no matter the occasion or the competition.
Mane, the best of the Indian shooters, finished 16th with 630.3 – a poor showing by the young Solapur native who usually averages in the 633s but hasn’t found that level over the last couple of months – first at Nagoya, and now in Doha.
Asian Games silver medallist Dhillion’s score of 628.1 only lent itself to a 41st-place finish. Makhija was a forgettable 61st with a score of 625.2. All three had made it to the Indian team on the back of consistently high scores in the national trials and upstaged stalwarts such as Arjun Babuta and Rudrankksh Patil to land at the Worlds.
Among the women, both Sonam Maskar and Shambhavi Kshirsagar had a similar story to tell – coming up with qualification scores nowhere near their own standards. Sonam finished 19th with a score of 630.5 and Shambhavi’s 629.7 was far below her usual output.
Story continues below this ad
Elavenil, the only experienced shooter among the six, didn’t have the best final. Over the years, her first 10 shots tend to put her at higher spots. But on Tuesday, the quick start she needed never materialised. Her last six shots in the competition read 10.5, 10.7, 10.4, 10.3, 10.3, 10.6. Where a burst of 10.7s and 10.8s were the order of the day, Elavenil couldn’t push some of the best shooters in the world, all of whom were in a fiercely competitive battle for medals and quota spots for the 2028 Olympics.
India excel at non-Olympic events
India clinched the silver medal in the women’s 10m air rifle team event after the men shot down the gold in the men’s 50m pistol competition. Neither is an Olympic discipline.
Earlier in the day, the Indian troika of Ravinder Singh, Saurabh Chaudhary and Amanpreet Singh clinched the team gold in the men’s 50m pistol event. Ravinder also won the silver medal in the individual competition of the event, which is also not on the Olympic roster. He was India’s top scorer with 559 points, including 11 inner 10s. Saurabh, a multiple-time World Cup gold medallist, scored 551, while Amanpreet added 549 to the combined Indian score of 1659.
