Elavenil Valarivan, two-time Olympian and one of India’s most accomplished women’s air rifle shooters, improved on her previous best at the prestigious Olympic Shooting Range in Munich by clinching a well-earned bronze medal on day one of the third stage of the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup (Rifle/Pistol) of the year.

Elavenil bowed out after the 22nd shot of the 24-shot final, finishing with a score of 232.1 to claim third place. She stood behind gold medalist Wang Zifei of China, who scored 252.7, and silver medalist Eunji Kwon of Korea, who finished with 252.6.

Earlier in the day, Elavenil set a new national qualification record, finishing second with a score of 635.9—an average of nearly 10.6 per shot over 60 shots.

However, China’s Wang Zifei, who completed a hat-trick of World Cup victories this year, topped the qualification round with a world record score of 637.9 (also a junior world record), surpassing the previous record of 636.9 set by Germany’s Anna Janssen at the World Cup Finals in New Delhi last year.

With both the reigning Olympic champion, Ban Hyojin of Korea, and reigning World Champion, Han Jiayu of China, making it to the top-eight final, the stage was set for a high-quality and intense contest—and it lived up to expectations.

The margins were razor-thin throughout the final. After the first five-shot series, the top five shooters were separated by just 0.6 points. Following the second series, the gap between the top four shrank to only 0.1 points. When Norwegian rifle ace Jeanette Hegg Duestad was eliminated in fourth place after the 20th single shot, the gap between her and Elavenil—who was leading at that stage—was just 0.6 points.

However, Elavenil’s 21st shot dropped to 9.8—her first below 10.1 in the final—and that proved costly. It caused her to fall 0.2 points behind Kwon after the 22nd shot, despite finishing strong with a 10.6. That narrow miss ruled her out of gold medal contention.

The only non-Olympian in the final, Turkey’s Elif Altun, was the first to be eliminated after the 12th single shot.

Among the other Indian shooters, Ananya Naidu scored 632.4 to finish 13th in the qualification round, while Arya Borse ended 50th with 628.2 in the women’s 10m air rifle event.

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