Juniors shoot down one more world record; Hriday Hazarika shines

The junior Indian marksmen continued to outperform their senior counterparts in the ongoing 52nd ISSF World Shooting Championships in Changwon, Korea. 

On Friday, the Indian juniors won four medals including two gold to climb to second behind hosts Korea (21 medals) with a total of 18 medals. India have left China (14 medals) behind at third place at the end of Day 6.

That the juniors have outshone the seniors in the Championships held simultaneously reflects in the medals tally. Fourteen of the 18 medals won by India have been won in the junior category made up of five gold, four silver and five bronze medals.

A day after Saurabh Chaudhary created a new junior World Record in 10m air pistol, the Indian teenagers won the four medals in 10m air rifle on Friday. Eighteen-year-old Hriday Hazarika won the gold in the junior men and the trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Shreya Agarwal and Manini Kaushik shot down the team gold in the junior women with a junior world record to cap. Valarivan won individual silver, and Shreya, bronze.

While Hazarika tallied 250.1 points for the top prize, the junior woman trio of Valarivan, Agarwal and Kaushik totalled 1880.7 points to erase the previous junior world record of 1879.9 set by Singapore and Chinese teams in the Junior World Cup in Suhl, Germany, in June this year.

With the junior women world record, Indians hold the team World Record in both junior men and women. The junior men’s team record of 1875.3 was made by Hazarika, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Shahu Tushar Mane in the Junior World Cup in Suhl this year.

Hazarika wins shoot-off

In the junior men’s section, Hazarika tied with Mohammad Amir Nekounam of Iran on 250.1 points after 24 shots in the final but pipped his rival to gold in a nerve-wracking shoot-off, collecting 10.3 points as against the latter’s 10.2.

Hazarika, had earlier in the day, finished sixth in the qualification stage with a tally of 627.3 points but worked his way up in the final to set up a shoot-off. Hazarika was trailing Nekounam for most part of the final but gathered momentum in the later stages to take it into the shoot-out. Hazarika’s 250.1 was better than his gold-medal winning shot of 248.7 in the junior World Cup in Suhl earlier this year.

Junior women dazzle 

The junior women’s final was equally exciting with Valarivan and Agarwal finishing first and second, respectively, after the qualification stage with scores of 631.0 and 628.5 points, respectively. However, in the final, the duo lost out to China’s Mengyao Shi, who tallied 627.4 in the qualification.

N Zone 

1330.1 Total points for the new junior women’s world record in 10m air rifle created by India’s trio of Elavenil Valarivan (631.0), Shreya Agarwal (628.5) and Manini Kaushik (621.2)

Did You Know?

Indian 10m air rifle teams currently hold the junior world record in both men’s and women’s sections – 1880.7 points by junior woman trio of Elavenil Valarivan, Shreya Agarwal and Manini Kaushik set in Changwon, Korea, on Friday, and 1875.3 points by Hriday Hazarika, Divyansh Singh Panwar and Shahu Tushar Mane in Suhl, Germany, in June 2018