RevSportz Comment
Imagine that you’re Elavenil Valarivan. To most of your fellow Indians, and others beyond the borders, you’re just an unpronounceable name and an unrecognisable face. You have around 14,000 followers on Instagram. Social media influencers who do nothing more than experiment with different kinds of pouts get more attention in a week. You turn 25 next Friday, midway through the Paris Olympics. This was your moment.
You also know that in an event like the 10m air rifle, just making it through qualifying is everything. After that, it’s a pure lottery, so closely matched are the contestants. Back in Tokyo in 2021, the three medallists — China’s Yang Qian, the Russian Olympic Committee’s Anastasia Galashina and Switzerland’s Nina Christen — finished sixth, eighth and seventh in qualifying. Elavenil was 16th, a full two points further back. She had no hard-luck story. But for a stellar third series (106.0), she simply didn’t shoot well enough.
Paris was such a different story. Even in one of the highest-quality fields ever assembled, Elavenil more than held her own. Just to illustrate how cutthroat the competition is, consider this. Qian didn’t even make it back to defend her title. Christen finished 23rd, 3.6 points behind Elavenil. Her score, 630.7, would have been good enough for fifth in qualifying in Tokyo. Here, in Paris, she was 10th.
For 95 per cent of the morning, Elavenil did everything right. After 50 shots, she was fourth, 1.1 points ahead of Ramita Jindal, her compatriot. For the first seven shots of the last series, she was right on track. That coveted place in the final featuring the top eight was so close she could almost touch it.
For the Latest Sports News: Click Here
But this is the most brutal of sports. The tiniest of twitches, not even noticeable to the naked eye, can cause years of hard work to unravel. Elavenil had averaged more than 10.5 per shot over the first five series. The rogue 9.8 in the final series destroyed her hopes. Before thousands of self-appointed experts who have never even held a gun skewer her, just think about this…mere millimetres separate that 9.8 from the 10.4 that would have earned her a place in the final. Millimetres, slightly less than the width of your fingernail.
Ramita will line up in Monday’s final, and millions of Indians will hope that she can at least emulate what Manu Bhaker did in the 10m air pistol on Sunday. Elavenil out-shot her in two of the first five series, and scored exactly the same points in another two. But because of three relatively poor shots to close out her round, she is already history, yet another Olympic also-ran.
By the time the next Olympics come around, she may not even be shooting. Who would want to keep pursuing a sport that shatters your soul like this? The least we can do though, even as we rally behind Ramita, is remember the teammate who came so very close. For most of us, a seat in the stands is as close as we’ll ever get to an Olympic final. Elavenil was this close to a place in that exalted company. This close. We shouldn’t forget her name.
Also Read: Manu Bhaker – from desperate failure in Tokyo to podium in Paris