In a major setback for India's shooting campaign at Tokyo Olympics, promising shooters Elavenil Valarivan and Apurvi Chandela had delivered a disappointing start in the Air Rifle event in which India had expected to shine in the current edition of the world's biggest sporting festival. Tokyo Olympics had officially kicked off in Tokyo on Friday with the electrifying opening ceremony. India has sent 127 athletes as its contingent to the Olympics. 

While Saturday's schedule of games was keenly watched by India to have a significant start on the first day of the two-weeks sporting event, the country had braced up the mixtures of major leap and disappointments - particularly, India's shooting campaign has met with a setback. India's shooters Elavenil Valarivan (World no 1) and world record holder Apurvi Chandela had failed to qualify for the finals in the Women's 10m Air Rifle qualification event on Saturday. 

It was the first Olympics event for Valarivan and she had finished 16th after shooting 626.5 in her 60 shots, consisting of six series of 10 shots each, while the more experienced Apurvi Chandela had finished in 36th place with 621.9. The event was held at the Asaka Shooting Range on Saturday and the qualification round consists of 50 women shooters and only the top eight shooters from the qualification round would enter the finals. In rifle, each decimal point is crucial and a gamechanger. 

Elavenil had missed the top eight spots by two points as Russia's Galasina Anastasiia had taken the final qualifying spot with 628.5. Though the veteran shooter Chandela had trailed from the beginning, Elavenil had tried to remain in the contest by delivering a splendid performance in the third series, including shooting a perfect 10.9 to end the series. But, Elavenil's good start had begun to erode in the remaining rounds and her points dropped down further in the final stretch, in the fifth and sixth series. 

Chandela had finished 34th at the 2016 Rio Olympics and in the current edition, she dropped down further with what had become a flawed target in the series. Norway's Jeanette Hegg Duestad was an outstanding performer in the qualifying round and she topped the list of eight finalists with a qualification Olympic record score of 632.9. On the other hand, in the men's 10m air rifle event, India's Saurabh Chaudhary had topped the qualification round with a score of 586 and moved to the final while another much-expected shooter Abhishek Verma missed out on the final, finishing 17th with the score of 575.