ISSF World Cup: Elavenil Valarivan, Divyansh Panwar win gold medals in 10m air rifle event

Putian: Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Singh Panwar added two gold medals to India's tally at the ongoing ISSF World Cup Final after clinching the top honours in their respective 10m Air Rifle event on Thursday.

20-year-old Elavenil clinched the gold in the women's category with a score of 250.8 in the final round. She was followed by Taiwan's Lin Ying-Shin (250.7) and Coman Laura-Georgeta (229.0) of Romania. Mehuli Ghosh, the other Indian participating in the event, finished at the sixth spot with a score of 163.8.

A total of four Indians were competing in the event but ace shooters Anjum Moudgil and Chandela were knocked out early after scores of 624.9 and 622.7 that saw them finish 13th and 15th position respectively.

Valarivan and Ghosh progressed to the final round, with the former managing to clinch the coveted gold. She had earlier bagged gold in the Brazil World Cup too, and finished fourth in the Munich World Cup.

India have managed to win four out of the five World Cup gold medals at the women's 10m Air Rifle event this year.

Meanwhile, Divyansh won gold in the men's category after he shot a score of 250.1 in the final round. He was followed by Peni Istvan of Hungary who bagged the silver medal with a score of 250.0. The bronze medal went to Jany Patrik who scored 228.4. Divyansh, 17, has already bagged the Olympic quota after he won a silver medal in the 10m men's air rifle at the World Cup in Beijing earlier this year.

Earlier in the day, 17-year-old Manu Bhaker opened India's tally at the ongoing tournament as she won the gold in 10m Air Pistol event. Manu fired her way to the gold medal with a junior world record as she shot 244.7 to claim the top prize in the prestigious season-ending tournament of International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF).

Her compatriot, Yashaswini Singh Deswal finished sixth in the final of the event. The silver medal went to Serbia's Zorana Arunovic who shot 241.9, while Quian Wang of China bagged the bronze with 221.8.

In the men's 10m Air Pistol event, Abhishek Verma and Saurabh Chaudhary had qualified for the final but missed out on podium places with a 5th and 6th place finish respectively.