Elavenil strikes gold as Shambhavi smashes junior record in Asian Championships

New Delhi: Olympian Elavenil Valarivan fended off a strong challenge from Japan’s Misaki Nobata to secure the gold medal in the women’s 10m Air Rifle event, while Shambhavi Kshirsagar shattered the Asian Junior Finals Record on her way to gold in the junior category at the Asian Rifle/Pistol Championships, New Delhi 2026, currently underway at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range.

Meghana Sajjanar joined Elavenil on the podium with a bronze medal in the senior event, as Manyata Singh and Aneesha Sharma, alongside Shambhavi, completed a clean sweep of the junior women’s podium for India.

Indian continued their dominance in the championship racking up 10 gold medals on day four of competitions to take their total medal tally to 43 medals including 27 gold, 10 silver and eight bronze. Ojasvi Thakur secured the gold in the women’s youth category.

India started the day sweeping the podium in the 50m Men’s Pistol event with former 10m Air Pistol World No 1, Saurabh Chaudhary winning the gold followed by Kamaljeet Chaudhary and current World Champion Ravinder Singh winning silver and bronze respectively. Yogesh Kumar won gold in the junior category of the event.

Elavenil was placed fifth after the end of two series but slowly clawed her back into the lead by the 18th shot. She kept her composure until the end to remain at the top of the pack with Nobata Misaki and Meghana close behind.

Arya Borse who was in medal positions until the 18th shot, missed out after hitting a low 9.8 which was followed by two 10.2’s. Nobata finished her finals with two back-to-back 10.8’s but Elavenil scored ten hits which was 10.6 in the elimination stage, including one 10.9. The Indian trio also won the team gold with a combined score of 1892.6.

In the Junior finals, Shambhavi created a new Asian Junior record of 253.7, eclipsing the 253.1 which was created by Isha Anil Taksale in Jakarta in 2024. She was in her dominating best from the start and continued that momentum, to win the gold with a massive four-point difference over Manyata Singh who finished on 249.7.

Shambhavi’s last eight shots read, 10.7, 10.7, 10.8, 10.8, 10.9, 10.5, 10.9 and 10.7 highlighting her dominance. Aneesha Sharma secured bronze with a final score of 227.5. Shambhavi and Aneesha along with Sandrata Roy combined to win the team gold with a score of 1884.2.

Ojasvi Thakur ensured India win all gold medals on offer in the day, winning gold in the Youth category with a final score of 250.4. Sri Lanka’s Umaya Ovitigala Withanage won silver while Yasmin Figila Achadiat won the bronze. Ojasvi teamed up with Anvii Vikram Rathod and Hrudya Shri Kondur to win the team gold also with a score of 1890.6

OTHER RESULTS

50m Pistol Men

Gold: Saurabh Chaudhary (India) 563-12x

Silver: Kamaljeet Chaudhary (India) 561-16x

Bronze: Ravinder Singh (India) 559-10x

50m Pistol Men Team

Gold: India

Silver: Uzbekistan

Bronze: Vietnam

50m Pistol Junior Men

Gold: Yogesh Kumar (India) – 557-10x

Silver: Sodikjon Abdullaev (Uzbekistan) – 544-10x

Bronze: Guntajpreet Singh (India) – 542-7x

Tags : Elavenil Valarivan, Shambhavi Kshirsagar, Asian Championships, New Delhi, Meghana Sajjanar