Elevanil wins gold in junior shooting meet

Young Indian shooter Elavenil Valarivan today claimed the women's air rifle gold medal in the 28th Meeting of Shooting Hopes junior international championship in Plzen, Czech Republic.

The 18-year-old shot 250.8 in the final to get the better of Italy's Nicole Gabrielli (249.7) by 1.1 point. She had also topped the qualification with 628.0.

Aleksandra Szutko of Poland won the bronze with 228.2.

The other Indian shooter in the final, Shreya Agrawal finished fourth with 206.6.

Also, the Indian junior men swept the three medals in the 25-metre sports pistol, with Rajkanwar Singh Sandhu winning the gold with 586, one point ahead of Vijayveer Sidhu.

Udhayveer Sidhu bagged the bronze medal with 582.

"It feels great but more importantly it was important to maintain the consistency of points. I am happy, that I could score as planned. These are important exposure tournaments for Asian Games and my goal is to do well there," Elavenil said after her win.

Among other notable results for India on the day, Aishwarya Pratap Singh Tomar reached the final of the junior men's 50m rifle 3 positions event and finished fourth with a score of 433.

Yesterday, extending her golden run, teenager Manu Bhaker won her ninth international gold medal in the last one year and talented Anish Bhanwala also emerged champion in their respective pistol events.