India open shooting campaign with silver in women's 10m air rifle team event

Account subscription benefits alongside Premium Stories, Editorials, Opinions and more. Unlock these with Subscription

Indian Rifle Shooter Elavenil Valarivan during the qualifying round of 10M Air Rifle event at the Asian Games in Japan on September 20, 2026. | Photo Credit: The Hindu

India began their shooting campaign at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on a high, winning a silver medal in the women’s 10m air rifle team event in Nagoya on Sunday (September 20, 2026).

Elavenil Valarivan, Sonam Maskar and Vidarsa Vinod combined for a total of 1898.0 points to finish second behind China, who topped the standings with a world-record score of 1904.2. Hosts Japan finished third with 1897.1 points.

This is India's first confirmed medal at the Aichi-Nagoya 20th Asian Games.

MMA fighter Suchika Tariyal was the first Indian athlete to assure a medal, reaching the women's Traditional MMA 60kg semifinals.

Sonam was India's top scorer with 634.1 points, followed by Elavenil with 633.5 and Vidarsa with 630.4.

Elavenil and Sonam also qualified for the individual final, with their scores placing them among the finalists. Elavenil and Sonam will look for a double in the eight-woman individual final to be held later in the day.

The silver is an encouraging start to India's shooting campaign after the country's shooters produced a record 22-medal haul — seven gold, nine silver and six bronze — at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.