Apurvi, Elavenil fail to qualify for 10m air rifle final

Indian shooters were off to a poor start at the Tokyo Olympics as first-timer Elavanil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela failed to qualify for the finals of the womens 10m air rifle event here on Saturday. Making her Olympic debut, Elavanil finished 16th after shooting 626.5 over six series of 10 shots each, while the more experienced Apurvi settled for the 36th place after aggregating 621.9 at the Asaka Range.

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 Norways Jeanette Hegg Duestad topped the qualification with an Olympic qualification record score of 632.9, while South Koreas Heemoon Park was second with 631.7. American challenger Mary Carolyn Tucker finished third with 631.4.

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