Elavenil Valarivan reveals what clicked in her Asian Games silver: ‘My triggering worked really well’

India made a strong start to their shooting campaign at the 20th Asian Games, winning two silver medals on the opening day at the Aichi Prefectural General Shooting Gallery. Olympian Elavenil Valarivan secured silver in the women’s 10m air rifle individual event, before joining Sonam Uttam Maskar and Vidarsa Kochalumkal Vinod to claim another silver in the team competition.

Elavenil delivered a composed performance in the individual final, consistently producing scores in the high 10s to finish with 252.4 points. She remained in contention for gold until the final shot but eventually finished 0.6 points behind Japan’s Hinata Taichi, who won gold with a new Asian Games record of 253.0. South Korea’s Olympic champion Ban Hyojin took the bronze medal with a score of 230.4.

Despite having already competed at two Olympic Games and one previous Asian Games, the Aichi-Nagoya edition brought her a milestone she had been waiting for, her first medal at a Games. “Today definitely is a very joyous day for me because this was my first Games medal. Although I've played three Games prior to this, two Olympics and one Asian, I think this is my first medal. Of course, I'm going to cherish it to the core,” Elavenil replied to a question from WION during a roundtable.

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The two competitions also demanded markedly different approaches from the Indian shooter. Elavenil explained that qualification allows shooters more freedom to control their rhythm, with 60 shots to be completed over a longer window. The final, by contrast, requires athletes to operate under a much tighter time constraint, making the ability to stay composed and execute quickly crucial. “We go on a different mindset when we go for the qualification because we know that we have got 60 shots and we have got one hour 15 minutes in our hand and we can take our own time and go on,” she said.

“But when it comes to the final, it is more of being on your toes and giving your best in those 50 seconds.” That distinction was something Elavenil had specifically worked on in training ahead of the Asian Games. “I really have trained on it, keeping my qualification in mind, keeping my finals in mind, keeping my strength and my weakness in head as well,” she said.

The preparation appeared to pay dividends as Elavenil produced a composed performance in the individual final, finishing with 252.4 points, just 0.6 points behind Japan’s Hinata Taichi, who claimed gold with an Asian Games record of 253.0. But when asked to assess her performance from a technical perspective, Elavenil pointed to one element that stood out, her triggering.

“I think something that really worked out today was on the technical part would be my triggering. I mean, I had good triggering throughout my qualification, my finals,” she said. “I was able to take the shots when I wanted to.”

Yet, interestingly, the same technical element also emerged as the area where Elavenil believes there is room for refinement.

“There were times when I felt that possibly I could have delayed a bit and then taken the shot. So, my judgment towards my triggering could have been a little bit better,” she added.