Elavenil Valarivan wins silver in women's 10m air rifle at Asian Games 2026

Elavenil Valarivan claimed the silver medal in the women's 10m air rifle final at the Asian Games 2026 in Aichi-Nagoya on September 20, finishing with 252.4 points; Japan's Taichi Hashimoto won gold with 253.0 and Korea's Ban Hyeon took bronze with 230.4.

Valarivan led the final from the opening shot through the 21st shot but dropped from first place on the 22nd shot; she could not reclaim the lead over the remaining two shots and completed the 24-shot final in second place.

Earlier on the same day Valarivan was a member of India's silver-medal-winning women's 10m air rifle team alongside Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa K Vinod, and her individual silver represents India's second overall medal at the Asian Games 2026, with both so far coming in shooting.

Valarivan reached the individual final after qualifying seventh with 633.5 points; Sonam Maskar qualified third with 634.1 and finished sixth in the final with 167.0 points, while Vidarsa ended qualification in 12th and did not advance to the individual final.

In the team event China won gold with 1904.2 points, India finished second with 1898.0 and Japan took bronze with 1897.1.

Valarivan's result follows recent continental and World Cup form: she won the women's 10m air rifle gold at the 2026 Asian Rifle/Pistol Championships in New Delhi and reached the final of the ISSF World Cup in Hangzhou this year, where she finished sixth while Sonam placed fifth.

Medals in the men's 10m air rifle individual and team events are scheduled to be decided on September 21, alongside the start of Men's and Women's Skeet qualification.