Elavenil strikes gold in high-scoring women's 10m Air Rifle final

NEW DELHI: In a high-scoring gold medal duel, where the winning total was higher than what it was in the women’s 10m air rifle final at the Paris Olympics, little-known Arya Borse on Saturday exceeded all expectations and nearly ran away with top honours.

She sat on the top in the eight-shooter final with a series of 10.5-plus scores and had a few more rounds to go. But she was stopped on her tracks by a stray pellet.The 23-year-old’s 17th shot produced a below-par 9.4, which brought an end to her dream of winning her first individual international medal. She was eliminated three shots later, finishing fourth. Her final score was 209 after 20 shots, slightly more than the 207.7 which Sagen Maddalena of the US had scored while finishing fourth at the Olympics.

India’s Elavenil Valaivan used her experience to clinch gold with a score of 252, more than the 251.8 Hyo-jin Ban had scored to tie the score after 24 shots before winning the gold in tiebreaker in Paris. Japan’s Misaki Nobata (251.5) took silver, while Meghana Sajjanar claimed bronze.Arya, however, was not crestfallen. Rather she was grateful to still be part of the Indian shooting team considering that she came very close to quitting shooting six years back.

“During Covid, in 2020, it was very difficult to train and manage everything. Our financial condition wasn’t good because everyone at home had Covid. My father was hospitalised and his condition was very serious. So continuing at that time was difficult,” the Nashik shooter told TOI.“I was training in Pune then, but because of financial constraints, I had to return to Nashik. Expenses were very high. My mother even took a loan to buy my rifle, and at that time it hadn’t been fully repaid.

That created a lot of pressure.”“I didn’t completely stop shooting, but cut down on it a lot. I couldn’t afford pellets regularly. Earlier I used to buy full tins, but later I had to ration them. For that, my results also weren’t very good,” she said.Yet, Arya, who started shooting at the age of 17, said she was hopeful despite the struggles.“We had no one to support us then. So I feel lucky to be here. I come from a middle-class family, maybe even less than that.

What my parents have done for me is more than what many families can do.”She said she was glad to even reach the final considering that she had recently changed her gun’s settings.“Just two days before the competition, I changed my rifle settings, which is always risky. Honestly, I didn’t expect to perform as well as I did.”On missing an individual medal, the History graduate said, “If the medal had come, it would have meant a lot. As an athlete, winning an individual medal really makes a difference.”Arya, who won one gold and two silver in mixed events in World Cups last year, will still have the high of winning the team gold here on Saturday with Elavenil and Meghana.