ISSF World Cup: Indian duo grabs gold in 10m Air Rifle Mixed event

Hungary's Istvan Peni and Eszter Denes settled for silver in the final, while USA beat Poland to win bronze.

The Indian duo of Elavenil Valarivan and Divyansh Panwar reigned supreme to clinch the gold in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team event at the ISSF World Cup in Delhi. The Indians beat the Hungarian duo of Istvan Peni and Eszter Denes by a score of 16 to 10.

The Indian duo came into the gold medal match after a great showing during qualifying, finishing ahead of the Hungarian pair. Another Indian pairing consisting of Anjum Moudgil and Arjun Babuta missed out on the medal matches after finishing fifth, 0.7 points behind Team USA in fourth.

Elavenil and Divyansh started strongly, racing to a 6-2 lead courtesy of a brilliant stretch from Divyansh Panwar. On the other side the lack of consistency from Eszter Denes hurt the Hungarians during the early phase. However, they managed to wipe out the lead, as both teams stood at 6 apiece. The next round saw Elavenil shoot a brilliant 10.9, which pushed India into the lead again and it became 10 in the next round. However, the Hungarians won the next two rounds to even the scores.

From there, Divyansh and Elavenil didn't put a foot wrong, as they won three continuous rounds to seal the gold medal, a first for both in the ISSF World Cup this year.

Earlier, Team USA eked out a brilliant victory against Team Poland, with a score of 17-15 to take home the bronze in the 10m Air Rifle Mixed event. The shootout was a high-scoring affair, but the pair of Lucas Kozeniesky and Mary Tucker, both individual gold winners, outlived the pressure to win third place.

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