Paris (France): India’s ace shooter Swapnil Kusale clinched the bronze medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Position Individual shooting event of the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024 on Thursday. He finished in third position with 451.4 points.
Swapnil became the seventh shooter for India to clinch a medal in the Olympics and the first player to win a medal in the 50m Rifle 3 Position Individual event. This is also the third medal for India in the ongoing Paris Games.
Swapnil didn’t start nicely as he shot the 9.6 in his first shot, but then got the momentum and hit more than 10 shots on the remaining attempts of the first series of the kneeling position stage. He began the second series with a 10.1-pointer but failed to continue with the momentum and once again failed down to the 9.9-point shot. However, he looked good in the third and final series of the kneeling stage, shooting everything above 10 points. He ended the kneeling stage in sixth place with 153.3 points in his kitty.
𝐒𝐰𝐚𝐩𝐧𝐢𝐥 𝐊𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐩𝐧𝐚 𝐇𝐮𝐚 𝐒𝐚𝐤𝐚𝐫
— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) August 1, 2024
50 M Rifle 3 Position Men's Final👇🏻
Swapnil Kusale gave India🇮🇳's its 3rd medal at the #Paris2024Olympics as he clinches a #Bronze with a total score of 451.4.
With this achievement, he becomes the 7th Indian shooter to get a… pic.twitter.com/8gDTQJKqaB
As the game moved forward, his accuracy of the shots improved. Swapnil, who hails from Kolhapur, continuously hit 10+ points shot in the next 15 attempts that propelled him to the XX position after prone position after 310.1 points. He collected 52.7 points in the first series, 52.2 in the second and 51.9 in the third series with the best attempt of 10.8.
After a five-minute break before the prone position stage, that seemed to break his momentum. He shot the 9.9-pointer on the first attempt of the final stage but then made a remarkable comeback with a 10.7-point shot. He accumulated 51.1 points from the first series and then 50.4 from the second, entering the elimination series and standing in third place with 411.6 points to his name.
In the third and final elimination round, he hit the first shot at 10.5, retaining his position in third place. But, then he started to falter. His next three shots 9.4, 9.9 and 10.0 were not good enough to lift him in the rankings. Despite that, he has won the bronze medal for the country.
