Tokyo Olympics: world No 1 Elavenil Valarivan fails in expected China shoot-out but India hails new teen star Saurabh Chaudhary

Women’s 10m air rifle was billed as battle between India and China, but Valarivan fails to even make finals

India’s Chaudhary, 19, tops preliminary competition and eventually finishes seventh in men’s 10m air pistol event

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Elavenil Valarivan, of India, competes in the women’s 10m air rifle at the Asaka Shooting Range. Photo: AP

Published: 5:15pm, 24 Jul 2021Updated: 7:36pm, 24 Jul 2021

Two weeks ago, world No 1 Elavenil Valarivan spoke with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as she carried a nation’s gold medal hopes into the Tokyo Olympics.

In the end, it was a bittersweet day at the Asaka Shooting Range for India as Valarivan failed to live up to her billing in the women’s 10-metre air rifle and the country hailed its newest shooting star – 19-year-old Saurabh Chaudhary – who finished seventh in the men’s 10m air pistol after a blazing first-round performance.

The 21-year-old Valarivan was expected to be involved in a titanic battle with Chinese shooters in the women’s 10m air rifle – won by the mainland’s Yang Qian – but she never even made it to the finals after finishing 16th in the preliminary competition.

“Elavenil was not poor but she was not great either, failing to find that big score on a regular basis,” wrote The New Indian Express. “After a relatively quiet start, she showed us what she’s capable of in the third series of the 60-shot marathon qualifying round with an impressive hit of 106 (top shooters average around 104-105 range).

“However, a dreadful score of 9.7 in the fifth series proved to be her undoing. She aggregated 626.5 to settle for the 16th spot.”

On July 14, Valarivan retweeted a post by Modi, who had spoken to the shooter in a virtual meeting ahead of the Olympic Games.