Valarivan is the world’s No.1 in women’s 10m air rifle, while Panwar slipped from the top position to No 2 in the world during the course of the ongoing ISSF World Cup.
Divyansh Panwar and Elavenil Valarivan occupy a rare moment in Indian sports.
Valarivan is the world’s No.1 in women’s 10m air rifle, while Panwar slipped from the top position to No 2 in the world during the course of the ongoing ISSF World Cup here. Their individual brilliance is great news, but there’s more—they also form a crack team together in the year that the Olympics will see a debut for mixed team events in shooting.
Coming together for the first time at this World Cup, Panwar and Valarivan outclassed the top-notch pair of Hungary’s Istvan Peni and Denes Eszter in the finals to win gold. If there were nerves, it never showed as Panwar and Valarivan shot brilliantly towards the end to see off Hungary’s late charge and win 16-10.
Three hours later, India’s top pistol pair—Saurabh Chaudhary and Manu Bhaker—also fired themselves to the gold medal. Chaudhary and Bhaker have dominated the World Cup series in 2019, winning four gold medals as a pair. On Monday, they began from where they left before the pandemic, beating Javed Foroughi and Golnoush Sebghatollahi of Iran 16-12 in the gold medal match. Abhishek Verma and Yashaswini Deswal beat Turkey’s Sevval Ilayda Tarhan and Ismail Keles 17-13 to take the bronze in the same category.
