SHYMKENT: India’s Arjun Babuta and Elavenil Valarivan clinched the gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team event at the 16th Asian Shooting Championship on Saturday.
The Indian pair outclassed China’s Dingke Lu and Xinlu Peng 17-11 to finish on top of the podium. The Chinese duo had led in the initial rounds, but the Indians, who faltered early with scores of 9.5 and 10.1, mounted a stirring comeback in the later rounds to claim the gold.
The victory means that both Tamil Nadu’s Elavenil and the 26-year-old Babuta from Punjab now have two gold medals each at the prestigious tournament. Elavenil had finished on top of the table in the 10m air rifle women’s competition, while Babuta had previously combined with Rudrankksh Patil and Kiran Jadhav to secure the team gold in the men’s 10m air rifle event.
Meanwhile, the Indian pair of Shambhavi Shravan and Naraen Pranav grabbed the gold medal in the 10m air rifle mixed team junior event, defeating China 16-12 after a dominant show in the latter part of the series.
The Indian team had finished third behind the two Chinese teams in the qualification round. Since only one team from each nation can compete in the final, the Chinese 2 team, comprising Tang Huiqi and Han Yinan, qualified after topping the qualification. The Indian team totalled 629.5, finishing behind China 2 (632.3) and China 1 (630).
Shambhavi scored 105.4, 105.2, and 104.4 in her series, while Pranav started slowly with 103.7 but improved in the next two series, scoring 105.7 and 105.1.
Another Indian team in the fray, comprising Isha Taksale and Himanshu, finished fourth in the qualification with a total of 628.6.
This is the second gold medal for Shambhavi, who had won the women’s junior 10m air rifle event with Hrudya Shri Kondur and Isha Anil, setting a junior world record score of 1896.2 on Friday.