India, Sept. 21 -- For 21 of the 24 shots, Elavenil Valarivan showed few signs of nervousness while leading the eight-shooter final.

Shooting with exemplary composure and precision, Elavenil consistently hit the inner-10s and looked on course for a wire-to-wire win in the women's 10m air rifle competition. But such are the vagaries of this sport that individual standings are also a function of how well the other shooters are firing. And firing rather steadily was local girl Taichi Hinata who pipped the Indian to the post with a Games record score of 253.

Elavenil, competing in her second Asian Games after the 2018 edition in Jakarta and Palembang, took silver with 252.4 while reigning Olympic champion Ban Hyojin from South Korea complet...