Chateauroux: Indian para-shooter Rubina Francis secured the bronze medal in the women’s 10m air pistol SH1 final after finishing third with a score of 211.1 at the Chateauroux on Saturday.
She finished behind Iran’s Sareh Javanmardi and Turkey’s Aysel Ozgan who collected the gold and silver medal respectively.
Francis started off strong and was placed in second position after Stage 1 at 50 points just .1 points behind Sareh but a dip in her second-stage performance had seen her fall out of the podium position.
Despite the immense pressure on Francis, the 25-year old para-shooter did not hit a single shot from her 14th-21st attempt outside the nine point mark and clawed her way back into the competition. She knocked out Turkey’s Aysegul Pehlivanlar in sudden death to seal the third spot.
Iran’s Sareh Javanmardi topped the qualification round with a total of 570 ahead of Hungary’s Krisztina David (567-17x) and France’s Gaelle Edon (567-16x).
Earlier in the day, Swaroop Unhalkar missed a place in the final in the men’s 10m air rifle standing (SH1) after finishing 14th in the qualification round with a score of 613.4.
Francis’ victory is India’s fourth medal in shooting in the ongoing Paralympics as Avni Lekhara and Mona Agarwal from Rajasthan won gold and bronze medals respectively, in the women’s 10m air rifle SH-1 and Manish Narwal clinched a silver medal in the men’s 10m air pistol SH1 with a score of 234.9. It is the country’s fourth medal at the Paralympics with Para-sprinter Preethi Pal winning the bronze medal in the Women’s 100m T35 event
–IANS