Paris Olympics 2024: Swapnil Kusale fights back to win bronze medal in 50m rifle 3 position

Swapnil Kusale made his Games debut at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The shooters continued to shoot down Olympic medals for India to win their third medal at the Paris Games. Swapnil Kusale clinched the bronze medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 position event.

His performance is worth the weight of gold considering where he started. It was a fight against the odds and the boy was determined to do it in probably one of the toughest shooting events.

It involves the shooter being in three positions and aiming at the target instead of the classic standing position alone, which is followed in other categories. The event comprises three positions: kneeling, prone and standing. In the kneeling position, Swapnil Kusale started with a 9.6, which put him in the bottom half.

The Indian couldn’t recover as he failed to shoot a single target over 10.5 in the kneeling position and was placed in sixth place, with 153.3 points. But, the champion in him came to the fore in the first six shots in the prone position, as his scores were 10.5 or above. His improved precision helped him close the gap, as he moved up a place in the standings.

ALSO READ: Paris Olympics 2024 Day 6 Live Updates: Swapnil Kusale wins bronze for India at Men’s 50m Rifle Three Positions Final

It was down to the standing position, the most difficult of the three, where the shooters would fire 10 shots instead of 15 in the other two positions. The difficulty was evident in the way all the shooters dropped their scores, with shots around 8s and 9s.

But, Swapnil Kusale kept his calm to shoot the joint-best score of 101.5 in the standing position, which helped him move to the third position. Two shooters were eliminated at this stage and there was an elimination after every single shot afterward. The lad from Maharashtra produced the best shot among the shooters in the 41st shot, with a 10.5.

While his next two shots with 9.4 and 9.9 were low, the cushion he had with the previous shots helped him win the bronze medal. Gold went to world record-holder Liu Yukun of China and silver to Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish.

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