India take silver in women's 10m air rifle team event at Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games

India take team silver behind world-record China

Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod combined for 1898.0 points across six series at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery on Sunday to secure India's first medal of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games. China won the women's 10m air rifle team gold with a qualification world record of 1904.2 points, bettering its own previous mark of 1902.0 set at the Asian Championships in Shymkent in August last year, according to one report. Host Japan took bronze on 1897.1, leaving India 0.9 ahead of the Japanese trio. Sportstar noted the result was India's second consecutive team silver in the event after Hangzhou in 2023.

Maskar and Valarivan lead India's qualification effort

Maskar topped the Indian scoring with 634.1 points to finish third in qualification, while Valarivan, competing in her third Asian Games, contributed 633.5 in seventh. Vinod, making her Asian Games debut after switching from her primary 50m rifle three-positions event to air rifle roughly two months earlier, added 630.4 in twelfth. China's teenager Wang Zifei, a junior world champion, led qualification with 636.8, setting a new qualification Asian record according to one account, though Wionews listed her top score as 638.8. Both Maskar and Valarivan advanced to the eight-shooter individual final scheduled for later the same day.

Valarivan adds individual silver in a tight finish

Valarivan went on to take silver in the women's 10m air rifle individual final with 252.4 points, finishing 0.6 behind Japan's Hinata Taichi, whose 253.0 set an Asian Games record for gold. South Korea's Ban Hyojin claimed bronze on 230.4. According to the Deccan Chronicle's shot-by-shot account, Valarivan led through much of the final, opening with 53.1 from her first five shots and staying on top into the elimination rounds. Taichi then closed with 10.6 and 10.2 on the last two shots to Valarivan's 10.4 and 10.1, sealing the result after Valarivan had entered the final two shots just 0.3 points behind.

How the team silver compares with India's previous shooting showing

The team result followed MMA fighter Suchika Tariyal becoming the first Indian athlete assured of a medal after reaching the women's Traditional MMA 60kg semifinals, where losing semifinalists also receive bronze. Deccan Chronicle reported India had two shooting medals at the Aichi-Nagoya Games, both silver, after the Hangzhou 2023 Asian Games produced a record 22-medal shooting haul of seven gold, nine silver and six bronze. Valarivan's individual silver was described by LatestLY as India's first individual silver in the women's 10m air rifle at the Asian Games.