India’s only shooter at the Paralympic Games, Naresh Kumar Sharma, disappointed yet again after only managing a 40th placed finish in the mixed R6-50m Rifle Prone event at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Deodoro, Rio de Janeiro, in what was the last event in shooting for the 44-year old. The Indian finished the qualification round with a total of 591.0 points which was not enough for him to qualify for the final round.
The top-8 shooters from the qualification round were to progress for the final of the event from a total of 42 athletes who took part in the initial round. Ireland’s Sean Baldwin was the favourite to finish the qualification round as the number one ranked as he had won the gold in 50m Rifle Prone 3 Positions event.
India’s Sharma started the event poorly with a tally of just 97.7 points out of a possible 109 in his first series which saw him being ranked at the 36th spot. The Indian could not pull up his socks and scored 98.3 points from his second series as he could not improve his position and got demoted to the 40th spot in the rankings. It was important for Sharma to improve his shooting if he had to make it through to the final round.
The 44-year old, then, saw himself shoot 99.1 points from his third series which saw him keep his 40th position in the table. It was a nervous phase for the Indian as he did not want to finish the Paralympics on a sad note by failing to qualify for the latter stages and not even having a shot at winning a medal. The Indian went on to score 96.9 points in his fourth series as he saw himself move to the last spot at 41st.
Even a perfect 109 in his fifth and sixth series would not have seen the Indian finish inside the top-8 to qualify for the finals. However, as it was not to be the Indian’s day as he could only manage a total of 591.0 points finishing at the 40th spot in the table as Great Britain’s Matt Skelhon finished the round as the number one ranked shooter in the event.
Here is the list of the top-8 shooters who have qualified for the final round which is scheduled to take place at 8:15PM IST:
