Indian shooter Swapnil Kusale was walking a tight rope in the qualification round of the men’s 50m three positions event at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Wednesday.
One shot here and there, the man from Kolhapur would have lost a chance to compete in the final of the event.
He needed perfect 10s in his last series to stay in the top eight. He started with four 10s and hit three 9s in the first seven shots making it tough for himself.
However, he shot three perfect 10s in his last three shots to make it to the final.
Tomorrow will be a big occasion for the 28-year-old who is not new to the big finals.
Swapnil finished fourth at the 2022 World Championships in Cairo, Egypt and he finished fourth at the 2023 Asian Games too.
One common thing among both those finals was one bad shot that pushed Swapnil down from the top position. At the World Championships, Swapnil was placed two and shot a poor 8.2 in his shot to finish fourth.
Similarly, he was leading by a huge margin but a poor shot of 7.6 in his third last shot meant that he fell to fifth and couldn’t recover from the fall.
Very happy & emotional for Swapnil Kusale today. Qualifying for Olympic Finals in 50M events is always special as this event is not amongst the strongest challenge from India. Closely worked with him during my tenure as a Chief Coach of 50M Indian Shooting Team 2022-2023. Heres a… pic.twitter.com/ke48mt1SDv
— Joydeep Karmakar OLY (@Joydeep709) July 31, 2024
Third time lucky at the Olympics?
“I still don’t know how that shot went that way. I was focused on my process and I think I was too much focussed probably,” Swapnil explained the situation to The Bridge on the sidelines of the Olympic Trials in Bhopal two months back.
“I felt sad about it but at the end of the day it is a game and it can happen to anyone. But now that it has happened to me twice, I think I was at fault somewhere,” he added further.
Swapnil was the first Indian 50m shooter to bag an Olympic quota with his fourth-place finish at the World Championships in 2022.
Coaching under rifle coach Deepali Deshpande, Swapnil took help from psychologist and former Indian shooter Tejaswini Sawant who helped him to handle tricky situations.
“I have talked to the psychologist about the situation and she has worked with me. Additionally, Teju Di has taught me how to handle different situations. I have learned from her,” said Swapnil.
One of the best 50m shooters in the country at the moment, Swapnil will have a chance tomorrow to redeem himself.
He created history by becoming the first-ever Indian shooter to qualify for the final of the 50m rifle three positions and he hopes to continue his historic run by becoming the first-ever Indian to win a medal in the event and without much hiccups.