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The 2021 Olympics witnessed a great battle between China’s 16-year-old inexperienced rifle shooter Sheng Lihao's and 20-year-old William Shaner of the United States of America. Locked in an intense contest for a gold medal in the men's 10-metre air rifle event at the Tokyo Olympic Games, both shooters depicted grit and mental toughness throughout the final.
At the end of the 24 shot final contest in Tokyo's Asaka Shooting Range on Sunday, William took home the gold medal with a score of 251.6, an Olympic record.
Sheng must have been elated to win silver on his Olympic debut with a score of 250.9 points. Sheng and William were in the race for the title right from the first shot fired in the final 24-shot competition.
The margin of difference between Sheng and William at the end of the first five shots was just 0.1. Sheng’s score was 52.2 while William shot 52.1.
The pendulum was titled slightly in favour of William at the end of the first 10 shots.
Of the next 14 shots, it was William who had an edge over his Chinese rival. He eventually won the gold medal with a score of 251.6 points.
China also won bronze in the event through 25-year-old Yang Haoran who scored 229.4 points.
China's Sheng Lihao was the last and eighth shooter to have qualified for the final. In the qualification round, he scored 629.2 points.
Mental strength and resilience is key to win a medal at the Olympics
The in-form William, fresh from his gold medal winning performance at the ISSF World Cup in Croatia, kept his cool in the gold medal match in Tokyo on Sunday.
The college-going student from the University of Kentucky started practicing shooting sports at the age of nine and has been competing at the international level since 2016.
Sheng, having no international experience, showed the importance of mental toughness to win silver ahead of more experienced shooters in the field, including Hungary's Istvan Peni at the 2021 Olympics.
Two Indian rifle shooters, Deepak Kumar and Divyansh Singh Panwar, failed to advance to the final. Deepak was placed in 26th place while Divyansh was 36th in the qualification round at Olympics 2021. Only the top eight shooters in the qualification round enter the final.
