Indian Rifle Shooter Elavenil Valarivan who won two silver medals in the 10M Air Rifle event at the Asian Games in Japan on September 20, 2026.
| Photo Credit: R.V. Moorthy
India’s wait for a shooting gold at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games continued on Tuesday, as the country went medal-less on the third day of competition at the Aichi General Shooting Range, with Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Mane finishing fourth in the 10m Air Rifle mixed team event.
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Having finished strongly in second place behind China in qualifying, Elavenil and Parth were expected to get India another shooting medal, regardless of the colour, but pressure got the better of the young shooters, who bowed out with a total of 376.3 after 18 shots each.
Low scores of 103.6, 104.3 and 104.4 in the first three series pulled the Indians down, despite a superb showing in the fourth series that saw them shoot the highest total of 64. The last time India won a medal in the event was in 2018, when Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela clinched bronze.
China, meanwhile, set a new World Record with a score of 507.1 to add another gold to its kitty while Korea took silver with 502.9 and host Japan bronze with 439.7.
The Chinese pair of Sheng Lihao and Wang Zifei had already set a new qualifying World Record earlier with a total of 638.9, more than four points ahead of second-placed India with 634.6.
“It was more about just getting settled in and doing our best again. I need to be a bit more aggressive with my trigger,” Elavenil admitted after the event.
Indian rifle coach Puja Ghatkar admitted that the absence of big stage experience made the difference, especially for Parth.
“We did really well in qualifying but I think they were not able to adjust so soon for the Finals. Parth is just 18 and he has shot very well in training, junior level and other international events… he just could not shoot the way he wanted to and we wanted him to,” she said.
The change in ISSF rules for mixed team events from 2026 also dashed India’s chances. Previously, the top two qualifying teams would go straight into the gold-medal match while the next two would fight for bronze. The new rules have done away with the medal matches with all four qualified teams shooting simultaneously.
“It just wasn’t our day. Both Elavenil and Parth are very good in Finals and they are are top-ranked, that’s why they were put together. It was lack of big-stage experience for Parth because normally there is no media, no questions, no spotlight and it’s all very new for him. But they are still young and they have already put it behind them because they have the World Championships coming up soon,” Puja emphasised.
Published – September 22, 2026 07:27 pm IST
