CHENNAI: The hopes were high this time. In what was India's first shooting event at the ongoing Tokyo Olympics, current World No 1 Elavenil Valarivan and former World No 1 Apurvi Chandela were looking to give India a happy start.
However, the duo — who compete in women's 10m air rifle — could not find their range during the qualification round, thereby failing to make the cut for the finals.
Elavenil was not poor but she was not great either, failing to find that big scores on a regular basis. 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.
The top-eight shooters qualify for the finals and will compete for the medals. The shooter in the eighth position had a tally of 628.5 In shooting language, that gap is quite telling.
Her senior teammate Apurvi also made a decent start but could toil after that. It was like the stage fright had gotten the better of the world record holder (finals). She eventually finished way behind at the 36th spot with a tally of 621.9.
While the Indians struggled, Norway's Jeanette Hegg Duestad was unstoppable and deservedly topped the qualifiers with an impressive score of 632.9.
If not for the late hiccup, she could have challenged the qualification world record (China's Ruozhu Zhao holds that honour with 634).
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