Indian shooter Elavenil Valarivan shatters world record on way to gold at junior ISSF World Cup

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Sydney: Indian shooter Elavenil Valarivan shattered the world record and claimed the gold medal in 10m women's air rifle event of the season's first junior ISSF World Cup. Besides her individual podium finish, Elavenil also combined with Shreya Agrawal and Zeena Khitta to claim the team gold medal.

Arjun Babuta bagged his second junior world cup medal, claiming a bronze in men's 10m air rifle event. The 18-year-old Elavenil, competing in her second World Cup and first final, shot 249.8 in the women's final to claim the top individual honours. Her 631.4 in the qualification was a new world record.

After a 9.6, Elavenil sealed the win with a high 10.7 in the crucial 24th shot, getting the better of Chinese Taipei's Lin Ying-Shin. Elavenil had also won a bronze medal at the FISU World Shooting Sport Championship last week.

China's Wang Zeru managed to win the bronze medal with a score of 228.4 in her first World Cup appearance. India's other finalists in the event -- Shreya and Zeena -- finished sixth and seventh, respectively, enough to clinch the team gold medal ahead of Chinese Taipei's Lin, Tsai Yi-Ting and Hung Chen-Ching. The bronze was claimed by Zhu, Wang and Gao Mingwei of China.

Babuta, a silver medallist at last year's Asian Championship in Wako City, Japan, finished below Yuqi Liu of China (247.1) and Zalan Pekler (246)of Hungary, with a score of 226.3. The other Indian shooters in the event -- Surya Pratap Singh and Shahu Tushar Mane -- finished sixth and eighth respectively.