Indian shooters Rudransh Khandelwal and Nihal Singh failed to qualify for the P4-mixed 50m pistol SH1 final at the Paris Paralympics. The duos were ejected in the qualifying round itself. Nihal Singh finished in 19th place with a total score of 522. Rudransh Khandelwal ended up in 22nd place with a score of 517.
India missed another medal at the Paris Paralympics on Tuesday. Avani Lekhara lost her semifinal in the women’s 50m rifle 3P SH1. German shooter Natascha Hiltrop won gold with 456.5 points. Slovakian shooter Veronika Vadovicova won silver with 456.1 points. Chinese shooter Zhang Cuiping claimed bronze with 446.0 points.
Avani Lekhara was close to becoming the second Indian to win two medals at these Paralympics. She had already won gold in the women’s 10m air rifle final. She defended her gold but missed out on another medal.
In the first set of kneeling, Avani led the table with Veronika Vadovicova and Zhang Cuiping, each scoring 51.1 points. However, she dropped to fifth place with a total of 100 points after the second series. The shooter shot 9.2, 9.0, and 9.9 on her 7th, 8th, and 9th shots respectively during this phase of kneeling.
At the end of the kneeling stage, Avani had accumulated 150.9 points and slotted in second position after Zhang Cuiping. Shooters entering the prone stage had a preparation time of seven minutes. Avani started the prone stage by gathering 50.6 points in the first series to drop to third. At the end of the second series, her score of 261.5 points pushed her down to sixth position as she shot 9.1 and 9.8.
After the third series of the prone stage, Avani was still in sixth position with a total score of 301.5 points. The shooters began to warm up for the standing position, considering that they had nine minutes to do so. In the first series of the standing position, Avani succumbed to the pressure of making it to the finals and shot an 8.3, closing at 48.8.
Avani tried to better her chances in the second series by hitting 50.4 to take her total to 400.7 points. When only six shooters were left in the elimination round, Avani shot 10.6 to take her total to 411.6. Shchetnik of Ukraine, who shot 10.5, could not override Avani’s score and bowed out of the competition after finishing sixth. However, Avani eventually bowed out of the competition after shooting 9.3 to end her campaign with a total score of 420.6.
This season, Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal in gold and bronze, respectively; Manish Narwal in silver. And Rubina Francis in bronze have won a total of four shooting medals for India at the Paris Paralympics. Indian para-athletes have also created history in Paris as they went past the highest number of 19 medals that they secured at the Tokyo Paralympics three years ago. The Indian contingent now stands with 21 medals and is going strong to increase this record further.
ANI
