Asian Games: Elavenil Valarivan has stopped chasing a medal. Then she won two

Elavenil Valarivan led most of the course in the women’s 10m air rifle final on Sunday. After 20 shots, she was on 211.1, 0.3 ahead of Japan’s Hinata Taichi. Two shots later, she trailed by 0.3. Hinata took the 23rd shot 10.6 to 10.4 and the last 10.2 to 10.1 to finish with 253.0, an Asian Games record. Elavenil’s 252.4 was silver by 0.6with reigning Olympic champion Ban Hyo-jin a distant third at 230.4.

It was close enough to hurt, and Elavenil didn’t like it like anything else. What she refused to do was blame the pressure.

Asked if that played a role, she said: “I would say no, not really. I mean, if pressure was going to play a role, it should have been from the match, from, from the start of the final. Not really. For me, it was more about following my technique and watching my progress with every single shot,” she said.

She took even harder stock of what the last three shots had taught her.

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“There could be a lot of things I could have done differently, but again, learning is the part I’m looking at more now,” she told reporters on Sunday.

“Obviously, it could have been, I could have taken better calls, but I didn’t, and that’s why I learned from the last three shots. I could have been a little more patient with my shots and maybe worked on my breathing a little more.”

Equilibrium has been behind him for eight years. Elavenil was a teenage world record holder when she first went to the Asian Games, and was world number one and a two-time Olympian without a Games medal. Sunday gave her two at the Asian Games. Earlier in the day, she won the team silver with Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa K Vinod, India’s first medal at the Games. India finished 0.9 ahead of the hosts at 1898.0, behind China’s world record. A few hours later she was back on the line, 0.6 short of an individual gold.

“I think today is definitely a very, very, very happy day for me because it was my first medal of the Games,” she said.

“Although I have played in 3 games before these 2 Olympics and 1 Asian Games, I think this is my first medal, of course, I will cherish it to the core.”

EXPECTATION

Elavenil Valarivan with his silver medal (NRAI Photo)

Expectations came early. In March 2018, aged 18, Elavenil won gold at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Sydney and her 631.4 in qualifying was a junior world record. It was only her second World Championship and first final. She got her own rifle in 2016 and a year later she made it to the junior team, training at the Gagana Narang academy under coach Neha Chavan.

The record made her a prodigy, which is hard to be in a sport that doesn’t recognize potential. Qualifying scores do not carry over to the finals and ratings do not carry over to other games. At the Asian Games in Jakarta later that year, she finished 14th and missed the final. She did not make the team for Hangzhou, the next year. She arrived in Tokyo as world number one and left 16th in qualifying, and in Paris, where she made the team alongside Ramita Jindal, she also finished short of the final.

Success was never a problem. She won the Asian championship in Shymkent last year with an Asian record of 253.6 and defended her title this year. The games were a gap in the resume.

ENJOY SPORTS

The most obvious change is in how he talks about winning. Earlier in her career, the result was a goal: make the team, win the competition, get a medal.

“I think lately I’ve started to enjoy the sport. At first it was more about making the team, winning the competition, it was about winning, but now it’s more about enjoying it, enjoying being part of the team and, you know, representing the country. So I think that’s been one of the main shifts in my approach to competition or training.”

She drew a line between Paris and now herself.

“I think like I just mentioned, Paris, it was more about getting there, being my best, winning the day and, you know, competing, but now it’s more about being happy to play the sport, enjoying every moment I get on the track, competing with my teammates, the shooters.”

She still wanted the gold and didn’t pretend otherwise. She simply didn’t let missy disturb everything before that.

FINALS ARE DIFFERENT

He is specific about why the final is a different sport than the qualifier.

“We go into a different mindset going into qualifying because we know we’ve got 60 shots and we’ve got 1 hour, 15 minutes in hand and we can take our time and keep going. But when it comes to the final, it’s more about, you know, being on your toes and, you know, giving it your all in those 50 seconds,” she said.

She worked on the gap with her coach and psychologist, and Chavan helped her experiment with the pace of the final.

“I’m generally a very fast athlete on the track during the qualification, but the final works on a completely different strategy because the time is less and you have to be the absolute best in the given time,” said Elavenil.

She provided new evidence on Sunday, and her verdict on her release came in two halves.

“I think something that really went well today was on the technical side. It would be my launch. I mean I had a good launch during qualifying, the final. I was able to shoot when I wanted to,” she said.

“Something I would have to work on would be my trigger as well because there were times where I felt like maybe I could have held back a little bit and then shot. So my judgment on my trigger could have been a little bit better.”

The scoreboard shows silver. He sees another training session.

SELF DOUBT

There have been bad days on the way here and she doesn’t pretend otherwise.

“Oh, of course, there are times when as an athlete, I think, I feel a lot of self-doubt, because when we’re working on something and we don’t see results, of course there’s going to be some level of self-doubt, some level of confusion, some level of frustration,” she said.

What got her, she says, were the people around her.

“My trainer, my psychologist, my strength and conditioning coach, my nutritionist, my physical therapist. They all worked tirelessly together for me and I think that. Their support is what kept me going through my tough days.”

One of them goes back to the beginning. Narang, whose academy she joined as a teenager, video called her before Sunday’s final.

“Of course I called the video, I think the Gagan video called me. I went to get the drug and I took a few minutes off and talked to sir. He had really good insights,” she said.

“He did, tell me about following in his footsteps, which again I’m very grateful to have learned from him.

EIGHT YEARS

A medal doesn’t erase disappointment and disappointment doesn’t erase a medal. Elavenil has now been to two Asian Games: the first, in Jakarta, ended without a final and the second brought two silvers.

“Looking back, yes, 2018 was my first Asian Games. This year 2026 is my second. I have developed as a person. I have learned a lot,” she said.

She counted two Olympics, World Cups, a World Championship and an Asian Championship that filled the years in between.

“And I think I still have a long way to go. I’m still learning, there’s still a lot of learning ahead of me, and I’m happy to have this opportunity to learn every day.”

The 18-year-old, who broke the junior world record, was already a very good shooter. The 27-year-old, who won two medals on Sunday, has improved all around. She learned that finals are not a qualification, that patience can matter as much as a trigger, and that a good support system will carry you through the doubt. Above all, she learned that the joy of sports is not the opposite of the desire to win. It makes it easier to keep going when you’re not winning.

“I think my message would be to believe in yourself,” she said when asked what she would tell young shooters.
“That’s kind of what I did, it means believing in yourself, because once you start believing in yourself, I don’t think you can stop it.”

10.1, with gold still within reach, will remain mostly homework for her.

“Learning today is something I would like, I would take today from here, but tomorrow is a new day again, it’s a new challenge for me.”

– The end

Issued by:

Akshay Ramesh

Published on:

21 Sep 2026 06:00 IST