Paris Paralympics 2024: Avani Lekhara finishes fifth in Women's 50m Rifle 3P event

Avani Lekhara failed to defend her bronze medal from Tokyo in this event.

Two-time Paralympics gold medalist Avani Lekhara will return home with just one medal from the Paris Paralympics 2024 after finishing outside the podium places in the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position SH1 event. Avani, who had clinched bronze in the same event at Tokyo three years ago, finished fifth with a total score of 420.6. She had earlier successfully defended her gold from Tokyo with a top-place finish in women’s 10m Air Rifle SH1 event.

Avani started her day brilliantly in the qualification round, with scores of 97 in all four series in the Kneeling position. She bettered her numbers in the Prone position with a score of 390/400. A rather disappointing round in the Standing position reduced her scores to 381. But it was enough to take her to the medal round.

The finals showed how the sport is a great leveler, as the tide reversed for the Lekhara. The 22-year-old was impressive in the Kneeling position with a score of 150.9 to stay in contention for a medal. The Prone position, which is regarded as the easiest, saw massive changes to the table.

Also Read: Paris Paralympics 2024: India’s Avani Lekhara strikes gold

Avani briefly topped the standings but a couple of shots in the lower 9s meant that she dropped down to the sixth spot. The sniff was enough for other shooters to capitalize on the easiest position to up their scores. It was down to the Standing position the most difficult of the three and the Indian had to play catch up.

Lekhara, who had won the Bronze in the same event at Tokyo, had to hit bullseye and score a perfect 10.9. But her scores hovered around 10.0 with a shot going as down as 8.8 meant that the rifle shooter from Rajasthan eventually finished fifth in the standings.

Germany’s Natascha Hiltrop won the gold medal despite earlier reeling in sixth place at the end of the Kneeling position round. Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia took silver while the defending champion Cuiping Zhang settled for Bronze.

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