Shooting
Olympics 2024: Swapnil Kusale wins bronze medal in 50m rifle 3P
Swapnil Kusale became the first-ever Indian shooter to win a medal in the 50m rifle 3P event at Olympics.
Swapnil Kusale (Right) wins India's first ever medal at 50m rifle 3p event.
Ace Indian shooter Swapnil Kusale became the first-ever Indian to win a medal in the 50m rifle 3 Positions event at the Olympics after winning a bronze medal at the Paris Olympics 2024 on Thursday.
The 28-year-old from Maharashtra scored 451.4 in the eight-man final to clinch a medal on his debut.
Swapnil started poorly with a 9.6 in the first shot of the kneeling position but recovered well to 50.8 and then again scored 50.9 in the second series.
His consistent shooting in the last series of kneeling and the next three series of prone made sure that he is never out of the medal contention. Swapnil didn't hit any shot below in these four series.
His start to the penultimate series of standing was poor with a 9.5 shot but he made up with 10.7 and 10.3 in the next two shots.
In the final series, he shot 9.1 in the third shot but other shooters also had a poor round and Swapnil was placed fourth at the start of the elimination.
He started with 10.5 in the single-shot elimination round and stayed in the hunt for the medal. 9.4 and 9.9 were the next two shots from Swapnil but he was placed third with a good lead over the others.
His last shot of 10.0 was good enough to take him to the podium with a bronze medal.
This is the third medal for India at the 2024 Paris Olympics and all three medals have come in shooting with Manu Bhaker winning the first in women's 10m air pistol and then second bronze in 10m air pistol mixed team with Sarabjot Singh.
