SKannan in Paris
Swapnil Kusale showed fluent form to make it to the 50m Rifle 3 positions final at the Paris Olympics. On Wednesday, the Maharashtra shooter, who has honed his skills under coach Deepali Deshpande, shot 590 out of 600 with 38 of his shots hitting the inner ring.
This is indeed a very technical event and from India, the hype was more on Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar. However, if one had followed the results of Kusale during the trials and build-up for Paris, he had preferred to stay away from the limelight. But on Wednesday,he became the first Indian to make it to the final of this event.
He may have looked shaky in the prone section, but the other two were solid – kneeling and standing. In a field where Yukun Liu from China was in terrific form, scoring 594, the fight to make the final was intense. Tomar had a bad day by his lofty standards, so for Kusale to make a final was proof that Indian shooting is back on the rails at the Olympics.
For long, people have been writing about how Rio and Tokyo were disastrous campaigns. But then, two medals from Manu Bhaker,along with Arjun Babuta finishing fourth in the 10mAir Rifle, appeared to have given Kusaleplenty of motivation.
Even though Deepali has not made it to Paris, she had told RevSportz last month that she had worked hard enough to ensure her shooters were well-drilled in the fundamentals.
What happened on Wednesday will become irrelevant on Thursday whenKusale enters the finals’ hall in Chateauroux at 1pm local time. Having sealed his quota place in Cairo in 2022, he had to keep improving. He has spent a lot of time in the shooting ranges at the academy in Bhopal. That helped him to score high in the trials as well in the May heat.
In other Olympic news:
This is one of his finest wins. @lakshya_sen
Just the day India wanted. And Sreeja now up! She can join @manikabatra_TT in the R of 16 https://t.co/YPow4sikMp
— Boria Majumdar (@BoriaMajumdar) July 31, 2024
Before coming to France as well, Kusale was practicing with full focus. A start from scratch on Thursday will mean that he has to go back, rest and come out refreshed for potentially the biggest afternoon of his life. The scoring will be in decimals in the final, which will make it harder still.
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