Tokyo Olympics: Apurvi Chandela, Elavenil Valarivan fail to reach 10m air rifle final

The Indian shooting contingent at the Tokyo Olympics had a disappointing start to the quest for Olympic glory as two shooters fail to qualify for the women's 10m air rifle final. Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela finished 16th and 36th respectively in the qualifying event. Elavenil scored 626.5 points while Chandela finished the event with 621.9 points. Elavenil is the only member in the Olympic team to have not secured a quota for herself for Tokyo Olympics, however, her consistent performance in the Olympic qualifying cycle, forced the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) to include her in the women's 10m air rifle team in place of Moudgil.

Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela exit Tokyo Olympics

The Indians were off to a decent start and even as Apurvi slipped after that, the 21-year-old Elavenil tried to remain in the contest with a fine performance in the third series, including shooting a perfect 10.9. However, Elavenil could not maintain the same form and a couple of 9s in the fifth and sixth series pushed her further down.

Apurvi had finished 34th at the 2016 Rio Games Norway's Jeanette Hegg Duestad topped the qualification with an Olympic qualification record score of 632.9, while South Korea's Heemoon Park was second with 631.7. American challenger Mary Carolyn Tucker finished third with 631.4.

Tokyo Olympics: Day 2 schedule of Indian shooters 

With Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela making an exit, the focus will now shift towards Saurabh Chaudhary and Abhishek Verma who will take part in the Men's 10m Air Pistol event. Chaudhary is expected to bring back gold in the men's 10m air pistol event, however, South Korea's Jin Jong-Oh is expected to be the hurdle in his way.

Coming to the Indian shooting contingent, the country has sent a record number of fifteen shooters to compete across ten events. This shooting team is considered to be one of the best consisting of some former world number one and current World number one shooters. Recently, India finished top of the ISSF World cup tally with 32 medals and they are expected to perform well at the Olympics.

(With inputs from PTI)

Image: PTI/ Elavalarivan/ Twitter