Smith misses Air Rifle Standing final

Brisbane Rifle athlete, Natalie Smith, was unable to qualify for the final of the R2 10m Rifle Standing event on the opening day of the Para Shooting competition at the Tokyo Paralympic Games today.

Smith, the bronze medallist in this event at the 2012 London Paralympic Games finished qualifying in 19th position with a score of 609.4 – 12.1 points adrift of the eighth qualifier for the final.

Smith began the qualifying round brightly with rounds of 102.2 and 103.0 in her first two series of 10 shots to be in finals contention.

But Smith then struggled with consistency over the final four series of 10 shots to miss qualifying for the finals.

In a high class qualifying event, China’s Cuiping Zhang and Ukraine’s Iryna Shchetnik both performed brilliantly to each record scores of 626.0.

Smith will now reset and refocus for the R3 Mixed 10m Air Rifle Prone match on Wednesday where she will compete alongside team-mate, Perth’s Anton Zappelli.

Australia’s sole competitor tomorrow is Bundaberg’s Chris Pitt who will contest the P1 Men’s 10m Air Pistol SH1.

Shooting Australia