File photo of Avani Lekhara.
| Photo Credit: PTI
Ace Indian shooter Avani Lekhara missed out on a second medal at the ongoing Paralympic Games and finished fifth after putting up a strong fight in the final of the women’s 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 competition in Paris on Tuesday (September 3, 2024).
The 22-year-old Avani, paralysed waist-down owing to a car accident she suffered as an 11-year-old, shot a total of 420.6 across the three stages of kneeling, prone and standing in a world-class eight-woman field.
Germany’s Natascha Hiltrop won the gold with a total of 456.5, Slovakian Veronika Vadovicova claimed silver with 456.1, and China’s Zhang shot 446.0 to bag the bronze.
Avani led the final briefly but slipped to sixth place at the end of the prone stage, which is not her strong area as it causes her problems owing to positioning.
The Indian ace was doing well in the standing stage, her strong suit, but then an unexpected 8.3 did not help her cause.
The SH1 class is designated for athletes with lower-limb impairment for competition in rifle shooting events. Here shooters are able hold their gun without difficulty and shoot from a standing or sitting position (in a wheelchair or chair).
Earlier in the day, Avani entered the final of the competition after finishing the qualification in seventh place. Avani shot a total of 1159 in the qualification.
The other Indian shooter in the event, Mona Agarwal, however, could not clear the qualification hurdle and ended in the 13th position. Mona aggregated 1147.
The top eight shooters from the qualification progressed to the finals.
In the final, Avani had 150.9 points at the end of the kneeling round and was placed second, with Chinese shooter Cuiping Zhang (151.5) leading the field going into prone.
However, things changed drastically for Avani in the prone where a few sub-10 scores, including a 9.2, brought her down to the sixth place.
Standing, no doubt, is her strong area but the gap with the leaders had widened too much by the time the final entered its last stage.
She shot a 10.6 to avoid being eliminated ahead of Iryna Shchetnik.
Avani, nonetheless, will return home after another excellent campaign during which she became the first Indian woman to win two gold medals at the Paralympics.
She claimed the top prize in the women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1 shooting event, successfully defending the title she won in Tokyo three years ago with a new Games record score of 249.7 in the final.