Olympics 2021: Indian shooters Elavenil and Apurvi crash out of the women's 10m air rifle event

Indian rifle shooters Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela crashed out of the women's 10m air rifle event at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday. While Elavenil will have another chance to bag a medal in the team event, this performance marks the end of Apurvi's journey in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

Elavenil shot 626.5 points in the 60-shot qualification round, while Apurvi scored 621.9 points. The par below performances weren’t enough to fetch either athlete a place in the eight-shooter final.

Elavenil, 21, shot 104.3, 104.0, 106.0, 104.2, 103.5, 104.5 for an aggregate total of 626.5 points to finish 16th in the field of 50 shooters. It is a highly competitive field and an average of 105 is usually the minimum score required to ensure a smooth passage into the final. However, both shooters failed to reach that mark.

Apurvi, 28, had a series 104.5, 102.5, 104.9, 104.2, 102.2, 103.6 for a total of 621.9 points. She finished in 36th position.

The performance graphs of both Apurvi and Elavenil have been unsteady since March (when the New Delhi ISSF World Cup was held). However, the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) was expecting good results after the Indian shooters had a two-month training stint in Croatia to prepare for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics.

What about the other Indian shooters in Tokyo?

In rifle events, eight shooters have qualified for the Olympics, including Deepak Kumar, Divyansh Singh Panwar, Sanjeev Rajput, Aishwary Pratap Tomar, Anjum Moudgil and Tejaswini Sawant.

Abhishek Verma, Saurabh Chaudhary, Manu Bhaker, Rahi Sarnobat and Yashaswini Singh will compete in pistol events at the Olympics in Japan.

Angadvir Singh Bajwa and Mairaj Ahmad Khan have qualified in men’s skeet event.