Asian Games: Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Mane finish fourth in 10m air rifle mixed team final
Indian rifle shooters Elavenil Valarivan and Parth Mane finished fourth in the 10m Air Rifle mixed team final at the Aichi General Shooting Range on Tuesday during the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, leaving India without a shooting medal on the third day of competition.
Elavenil and Parth had qualified strongly in second place behind China, raising expectations for a podium finish, but they posted a combined total of 376.3 after 18 shots each in the final and were eliminated from medal contention.
In the final the Indian duo opened with low series scores of 103.6, 104.3 and 104.4, and recovered only in the fourth series when they shot the highest total of 64; those early results proved costly to their overall tally of 376.3.
China won the event and set a new World Record in the final with a score of 507.1; Korea took silver with 502.9 and host Japan claimed bronze with 439.7. In qualifying the Chinese pair of Sheng Lihao and Wang Zifei had already established a World Record with 638.9.
India’s qualifying score of 634.6 had placed them more than four points behind the Chinese leaders and had been the second-best total going into the final; the last time India had medalled in this mixed team event was in 2018 when Ravi Kumar and Apurvi Chandela won bronze.
After the result Elavenil said: "It was more about just getting settled in and doing our best again. I need to be a bit more aggressive with my trigger." Indian rifle coach Puja Ghatkar reflected on the transition from qualifying to the final, saying: "We did really well in qualifying but I think they were not able to adjust so soon for the Finals. Parth is just 18 and he has shot very well in training, junior level and other international events... he just could not shoot the way he wanted to and we wanted him to."
The change in ISSF rules for mixed team events from 2026 — which removed separate gold- and bronze-medal matches and required all four qualified teams to shoot simultaneously in the final — was noted as a factor affecting outcomes. On that point Puja added: "It just wasn’t our day. Both Elavenil and Parth are very good in Finals and they are are top-ranked, that’s why they were put together. It was lack of big-stage experience for Parth because normally there is no media, no questions, no spotlight and it’s all very new for him. But they are still young and they have already put it behind them because they have the World Championships coming up soon."
India’s shooters will next prepare for the World Championships, an event referenced by the Indian coach as the immediate target following the mixed team final at the Asian Games.
