ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol 2025 Day 1: Elavenil Valarivan and Ravinder Singh kickstart India's Medal Tally

India's shooters launched their campaign at the ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol 2025 in Cairo, Egypt, with a magnificent display on Day 1, securing a total of four medals to immediately place the nation on the global standings. The stellar performance was spearheaded by Army marksman Ravinder Singh, who clinched India’s first Gold, and Olympian Elavenil Valarivan, who earned a brilliant double-bronze, ensuring a high-octane start for the 40-member Indian contingent.

By the end of the first day, the medal haul stood impressively at one gold, one silver, and two bronze medals, signalling India's firm intent to dominate the competition at the Egypt International Olympic City shooting range.

Army shooter Ravinder Singh provided the perfect start for the Indian contingent by winning the very first gold medal for the country in the Men's 50m Pistol event, which is a non-Olympic discipline. Ravinder, who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, shot an impressive score of 569-12x to finish atop the standings.

The 29-year-old shooter further contributed to the medal haul by combining with Kamaljeet and Yogesh Kumar to secure the Team Silver in the same event. The trio posted a cumulative total of 1646-26x, finishing just two points behind the champion South Korean team.

Elavenil Valarivan Bags Double Bronze at ISSF World Championship Rifle/Pistol 2025

In the Olympic-event Women’s 10m Air Rifle, Olympian Elavenil Valarivan showcased her consistency by bagging a Bronze medal in the individual final. This marks the first individual medal at the World Championships for the Asian champion.

Valarivan shot a strong final score of 232, finishing third behind reigning Olympic champion Ban Hyo-jin of South Korea (Gold) and China's Wang Zifei (Silver). Earlier, Valarivan qualified for the final in fifth place with a score of 633.4.

Her medal count doubled when she teamed up with Meghana Sajjanar and Shreya Agrawal to win the Team Bronze in the Women's 10m Air Rifle event, with the unit registering a total of 1893.3.

In the Men's 10m Air Rifle event, India's Arjun Babuta successfully qualified for the final but ultimately finished in seventh position after shooting 145.0. Babuta had made the cut for the final with a qualification score of 632.5. The Indian team in the Men's 10m Air Rifle also finished a creditable fourth in the team standings.

Edited by Sooryanarayanan Sesha