Elavenil Valarivan defended her gold medal, while Mehuli Ghosh came second in the women’s 10m air rifle final as India maintained its dominance in the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany on Monday. Elavenil scored 251.6 in the final, while Ghosh claimed the silver with 250.2 points. France’s Oceanne Marianne Muller finished third. Apurvi Chandela Wins Gold in 10M Air Rifle at the ISSF World Cup 2019, Munich.

Elavenil, who also won a silver at Universiade, beat compatriot Mehuli to clinch the gold by a difference of 1.4 points. Incidentally, She had finished at the eighth place in the qualifying round, which was topped by Mehuli and Eszter Meszaros with a score of 630.4. Elavenil had managed to 627.5 points, while Shreya Agarwal was third-best Indian among 124 shooters with a score of 625.4.

The trio of Elavenil, Mehuli and Shreya also clinched the team gold with a new world record score of 1883.3 points. India after the dominance of its women shooters now have six gold, six silver and two bronze medals in their kitty. Russia and Norway has won two gold medals each, while China, Austria, Thailand and Germany have clinched one gold medal each.

Ghosh initially led the women's individual 10m Air Rifle event before Elavenil overtook her. They kept on challenging for the first spot with bronze medal winner Oceanne Muller also not far behind. But Elavenil's strong finish helped her maintain the advantage over Mehuli in the final round of shots.

Meanwhile, in the junior men’s trap, Bhowneesh Mendiratta fell three points short of a medal after finishing on 116. Manavaditya Singh Rathore, Vivaan Kapoor (113) and Vishwa Kundu (112) all disappointed. The trio of Bhowneesh, Vivaan and Vishwa had a total of 341 points in the team event and missed a medal by two points.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jul 15, 2019 08:22 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).