Singhraj Adhana won the bronze medal in the P1 men’s 10m air pistol SH1 event at the Tokyo Paralympics on Tuesday. This was India’s eighth medal at the ongoing Games.
He shot a total of 216.8 in the final to finish behind China’s Chao Yang, who won the gold medal with a Paralympic record, and Xing Huang.
The other Indian in the final, Manish Narwal, who had topped the qualification stage with 575,, finished seventh.
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Adhana, who had qualified for the final in sixth position, had a very good first Competition Stage and was placed second at the end of it. This meant that going into the Elimination stage, he was in line for a good finish.
On the other hand, 19-year-old Narwal was eliminated in the seventh place, struggled to get going in the final.
Adhana had some tense moments but held his nerve to finish in the top three after a tight battle with the third Chinese shooter, Xiaolong Lou. Hovering around the top three, Adhana dropped out of contention with his poor 19th shot but managed to get back in the reckoning with his 20th attempt.
In an elimination battle, Singhraj shot 9.6 with his final shot while Lou shot 8.6 to go out. The total, at that point, was 196.8 to 196.5. Lou eventually finished fourth.
As the pistol is held with one hand only, athletes in SH1 category have an impairment affecting one arm and/or the legs, for example resulting from amputations or spinal cord injuries. P1 is a classification for the men’s 10 air pistol competition.
Some shooters compete in a seated position, while others take aim in a standing position as defined in the rules.
Rubina Francis finishes seventh in women’s 10m air pistol SH1 final
Earlier in the day, Rubina Francis finished seventh in the women’s 10m air pistol SH1 final.
Francis had 128.1 points when she was eliminated in the seventh place at the Akasa Shooting Range.
Iran’s Sareh Javanmardi won the gold medal with a world record score of 239.2. The Indian had held the previous world record with 238.1.
It was always going to be an uphill task for Francis after she shot a horror 6.6 in the first series. Still she was placed fourth after the end of the first competition stage with 93.1 point, as the elimination rounds began.
She tried but could not regain the lost ground and was the second shooter to be eliminated in the eight-member final.
Earlier, she started off well in the qualifications to finish seventh with 560 points and make the final.
The 22-year-old from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh had set the world record in the finals at the World Cup in Lima, Peru in June.
She was born with an impairment to her leg. In May, she had contracted Covid-19 while at the national training camp. She was unable to train for more than a month, until days before the World Cup event in Lima, Peru, where she won gold in the women’s SH1 10m air pistol and secured a quota place for Tokyo.
Javanmardi also topped the qualifying round with a score of 572, a new Paralympic Games record for qualifying.
With PTI Inputs
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