NAGOYA/AICHI, SEP 20 (PTI): India’s Elavenil Valarivan added an individual silver to the team silver she won earlier in the day, finishing runner-up in the women’s 10m air rifle event at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, here on Sunday.
The 2025 world championship bronze medallist shot 252.4 points in the final to finish behind Japan’s Hinata Taichi, who won gold with an Asian Games record 253.0. South Korea’s Hyojin Ban took bronze with 230.4.
Elavenil entered the final two shots just 0.3 points behind Taichi and remained in contention after shooting 10.4 to the Japanese shooter’s 10.6, which stretched the gap to 0.5.
Needing a strong final shot to turn the tables, Elavenil managed 10.1, but Taichi held her nerve with a 10.2 to seal the gold and set a new Asian Games record.
The silver was Elavenil’s second medal of the day after she helped India win silver in the women’s 10m air rifle team event earlier on Sunday, alongside Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod.
India now have two shooting medals at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games — both silver, giving an encouraging start to their shooting campaign after they had produced a record 22-medal haul — seven gold, nine silver and six bronze — at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
Mixed Martial Arts fighter Suchika Tariyal was the first to assure the country of a medal in women’s Traditional MMA 60kg after reaching the semifinals.
India women win 10m air rifle team silver
India women’s 10m air rifle team clinched a silver medal, marking India’s first medal win at the Asian Games 2026 on Sunday.
The trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Kochalumkal accumulated 1897 points in the 16-team event to finish second behind China here at the Aichi Pref. General Shooting Gallery.
China bagged gold with a world-record score of 1904.2, while hosts Japan won bronze with 1897.1.
This was India’s first medal win at the Asiad 2026, although India had already secured their first medal when Suchika Tariyal moved into the semifinals of the Mixed Martial Arts Traditional 60kg earlier in the day.
At the end of the first series, the trio combined to tally 316.9 points.
The second series saw them tally 316.8 points, while they produced an even better show in the third series.
The trio combined to shoot 317.9 points as they kept putting on a strong show and tallied 951.6.
At the end of the fourth series, the Indian trio tallied 1267.8 points after accumulating 316.2 in the fourth series.
They dropped down in the penultimate fifth series to tally 314.8 before accumulating a score of 315.4 in the final series to finish at 1898, 0.9 clear of the third-placed Japan.
Valarivan is a two-time gold medallist at the ISSF World Cup, winning the yellow metal in the 2019 and 2023 World Cups.
Sonam is a triple silver medal winner at the ISSF World Cup Final, winning the titles in 2024.
Indian shooters had won a record 22 medals at the 2023 Asian Games, including seven gold, nine silver and six bronze.
Monday, September 21, 2026