Avani Lekhara finishes fifth in women's 50m rifle 3 positions final

Ace Indian shooter Avani Lekhara missed out on a second medal at ongoing Paralympic Games and finished fifth after putting up a strong fight in final of women's 50m rifle 3 positions SH1 competition here on Tuesday.

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 three stages of kneeling, prone and standing in a world-class eight-woman field.

Germany's Natascha Hiltrop won gold with a total of 456.5, Slovakian Veronika Vovicova claimed silver with 456.1, and China's Zhang shot 446.0 to bag bronze.

Avani led final briefly but slipped to sixth place at end of prone stage, which is not her strong area as it causes her problems owing to positioning.

Indian ace was doing well in standing stage, her strong suit, but n an unexpected 8.3 did not help her cause.

SH1 class is designated for athletes with lower-limb impairment for competition in rifle shooting events. Here shooters are able hold ir gun without difficulty and shoot from a standing or sitting position (in a wheelchair or chair).

Earlier in day, Avani entered final of competition after finishing qualification in seventh place. Avani shot a total of 1159 in qualification.

or Indian shooter in event, Mona Agarwal, however, could not clear qualification hurdle and ended in 13th position. Mona aggregated 1147.

top eight shooters from qualification progressed to finals.

In final, Avani h 150.9 points at end of kneeling round and was placed second, with Chinese shooter Cuiping Zhang (151.5) leing field going into prone.

However, things changed drastically for Avani in prone where a few sub-10 scores, including a 9.2, brought her down to sixth place.

Standing, no doubt, is her strong area but gap with leers h widened too much by time final entered its last stage.

She shot a 10.6 to avoid being eliminated ahe of Iryna Shchetnik.

Avani, noneless, will return home after anor excellent campaign during which she became first Indian woman to win two gold medals at Paralympics.

She claimed top prize in women's 10m air rifle standing SH1 shooting event, successfully defending title she won in Tokyo three years ago with a new Games record score of 249.7 in final.