After two productive days in the shooting range, India had a rude awakening on Tuesday in the 10m mixed team, as the pair of Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Mane missed the podium in Aichi.
Competing against the formidable world No.1 Chinese pair of Sheng Lihao and Wang Zife, South Korea’s Ban Hyojin and Park Hajun, and Japan’s Nobota Misaki and Hanakawa Naoki, the Indian pair failed to get going and were placed last in the final after the first series.
China won a comfortable gold with some sensational shooting, nailing 507.1 for a world record score. The previous record was held by Norway (506.7) that was set this February. South Korea were third with 502.9 points, the difference in points an apt indicator of the gulf between China and rest of the field.
The Indians, meanwhile, couldn’t recover from a bad start till the very end, with Elavenil, who won an individual silver in the rife event two days back, struggling to hit the high 10s. She shot a 10.8 on the 17th shot while Indian No.1 Parth nailed a perfect 10.9 but it proved to be too little, to late.
The next shot, an elimination hit, saw the Indians hit a 10.7 each but it couldn’t save them from the exit with an aggregate of 376.3.
Earlier in the day, Elavenil and Parth entered the final in second place behind the Chinese who smashed the qualification world record, Asian record and Games record with a score of 638.9.
China led after the first series 107.2 with Liaho and Zife carrying their qualification rhythm into the final. They comfortably led the rest of the field and cruised to a comfortable gold. South Korea’s Ban Hyojin and Park Hajun took the silver while the local pair of Nobota and Hanakawa shot 439.7 to take bronze.
The result means India’s wait for a gold in the 10m air rifle continues. India has never won a gold in this event at the Asian Games and their best result in the Mixed event remains the bronze won in 2018 by Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela.