A strong 30-member Indian shooting team will compete in rifle/pistol/shotgun events at the Asian Games in Japan.
Three Indian female rifle shooters—Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa K Vinod—will step at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery to compete in the women’s 10m air rifle qualification round at the Aichi Nagoya Asian Games on Sunday.
All three shooters made the 30-member national Asian Games squad through vigorous selection procedure and in all probability should make the medal round at the Asian Games. Top eight-shooters in the qualification advance to the medal round. The 24-shot final is anybody’s game.
Elavenil is the most experienced of all. She entered the competition as a former World Cup gold medallist and Asian champion.
At the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games held in China in 2023, the Indian shooting squad topped the chart with seven gold medals. The Indian shooting team overall won 22 medals, including nine silver and six bronze to swell the country’s medal tally.
The Indian athletics contingent with six gold was second on the table chart and the archery team with five gold medals was third. Majority of the medals won by Indian shooters at the previous Asian Games in China were in team events. Therefore, it will be interesting to see whether the top three Indian women 10m rifle shooters set the ball rolling. The Indian shooters will compete across individual, team and mixed-team events.
EOM
