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India's Swapnil Kusale finished 7th in the men's 50 m rifle 3 positions to make it to the final medal round as compatriot Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar finished 11th at the Paris Olympics 2024 on July 31, Wednesday. Swapnil looked to be the most consistent of both men and scored 198 points in the Kneeling round, 197 in the Prone round and 195 in the standing round to finish 7th. He had a total of 590 points and 38 inner 10s.
With this, Swapnil became the 5th shooter to qualify for a final in the Paris Olympics 2024 after Manu Bhaker, Arjun Babuta, Sarabjot Singh and Ramita Jindal. Yukun Liu of China finished first in the round and also set an Qlympic qualification record as he scored 594 points and had 38 inner 10s.
It was Swapnil who had started the brightest of both shooters in the kneeling round as he was able to get off to a flyer and got 3 straight 10s in the first series. A 9 would break the streak but started another one as he finished the series with 6 straight 10s.
He would hit 99 in the second series as well to finish 5th in the standings after the kneeling round was done. Aishwary didn't have a great first series in the kneeling round as he had a couple of 9s and scored 98 points. The second series gave him 99 points but he finished outside top 10 as the competition was getting tough.
In the Prone round, the roles was reversed as Aishwary showed his skill and started with a perfect 100. The second series was almost perfect as the 8th shot was a 9. Swapnil had 2 9s in his first series of the Prone round and the second one yielded 99 points. But he ended up in the 10th spot as we headed into the Standing round. Aishwary was in 6th, but slipped out to 8th on inner 10s.
Aishwary started his standing round first series with a 10 while Swapnil hit a 9. Aishwary, however, hit 2 9s to slip out of the top 8, while Swapnil moved in as he hit 7 straight 10s and move into 8th. Aishwary continued to struggle as he hit a 3rd 9 on the trot.
Swapnil, however, fell out of the top 8 as he his first series ended with a 9, giving him 98 points. He would start the second series with a bang and hit 4 10s as he moved into the top 5 as Aishwary continued to slip down.
However, 3 straight 9s would force Swapnil out of the top 10. He finishes his final series with 3 10s. Aishwary ended his final series with 193 points to his name and was left depending on other results.
In the end, Swapnil did enough to make it to the final, which will be played on August 1.
