Avani Lekhara was not at her usual best as she finished a disappointing 27th with a score of 629.7, crashing out in the third round.
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India’s first-ever female Paralympic gold medallist Avani Lekhara returned to action for her second event at the Tokyo Paralympics, taking part in the R3 – Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone SH1 event on Wednesday. Three Indian shooters were on the list of participants for this event. Sidhartha Babu, Deepak and of course, Avani. However, no Indian qualified for the finals.
This event is one of the seven mixed-gender shooting events. Five for rifle and two for pistol. For the event, there were 47 participants from 26 countries as per the Shooting Para organisers.
India’s gold medallist Avani Lekhara started off with a superb series of 105.9. Meanwhile, the other two participants, Deepak managed a 102.7 and Sidhartha 104.9.
But, as we got deep into the qualification, other competitors were outclassing the Indian shooters. It was not looking promising for any of the three Indian shooters. After three rounds, all of them were hanging outside the top 15.
As we edged closer to the finish, the positions did not change much. But a word of appreciation for Avani who put in a very consistent display, putting her in the top 15.
Deepak was done with his six series and finished with a 624.9. No luck in this event but he will return for two more events. 102.7, 106.3, 103.6, 104.8, 104.1 and 103.4 read his scores.
After starting off well, Avani trailed back a little which saw her missing out on qualification. However, she has two more events to go. 105.9, 105.0, 104.9, 105.3, 104.2 and 104.4 read her scores. 104.9, 103.4, 102.9, 105.2, 105.3 and 103.8 read the final scores of Sidhartha Babu who has one more event left in Tokyo. Avani eventually finished 27th with Sidhartha placed 40th and Deepak 43rd after scores of 629.7, 625.5 and 624.9 respectively.
The Gold medal went to Natascha Hiltrop of Germany with a score of 253.1. She narrowly edged out the silver medalist Park Jinho of South Korea, who scored 253.0. Iryna Shchetnik of Ukraine secured the bronze medal with a score of 231.2. The finals were a two-way fight for the gold medal. Natascha and Park went back and forth for the entire event leaving other competitors to fight amongst themselves while they were in a league of their own. In the end, the German got the better of the South Korean by a whisker.
