Shymkent (Kazakhstan), Aug 23: India’s Arjun Babuta and Elavenil Valarivan bagged the gold medal in 10m air rifle mixed team event of 16th Asian Shooting Championship here on Saturday.
The Indian pair outclassed China’s Dingke Lu and Xinlu Peng 17-11 to finish on top of the podium.
The Chinese pair was leading in the initial round but the Indians, who faltered early with shots of 9.5 and 10.1, made a stirring comeback in the later rounds to claim the gold.
The effort meant that both Tamil Nadu’s Elavenil and the 26-year-old Babuta from Punjab have now won two gold medals each at the prestigious tournament.
Elavenil had finished on top the table in the 10m air rifle women’s competition, while Babuta had combined with Rudrankksh Patil and Kiran Jadhav to clinch the team gold in men’s 10m air rifle event.
Meanwhile, the Indian pair of Shambhavi Shravan and Naraen Pranav grabbed the gold medal in 10m air rifle mixed team junior event. They beat China 16-12 after a dominant show the latter part of the series.
The Indian team had finished third behind the two Chinese teams in the qualification but since only one team from a nation can compete, the Chinese 2 team, comprising Tang Huiqi and Han Yinan, qualified for the final after topping the qualification.
The Indian team totalled 629.5 to finish behind China 2 (632.3) and China 1 (630).
Shambhavi had a series of 105.4, 105.2 and 104.4 while Pranav began slow 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 with a score of 628.6 in the qualification.
It is second yellow metal for Shambhavi, who had won the women’s junior 10m air rifle event with Hrudya Shri Kondur and Isha Anil with a junior world record score of 1896.2 on Friday. (PTI)
