Paralympics preview: shooting day three

Day three of shooting Para sport at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games will feature the mixed 10m air rifle events. 
Two finals will be played on Wednesday (1 September) at the Asaka Shooting Range, with the R3 - mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1 opening the day’s action.

China’s Cuiping Zhang is one the biggest name in the R3 event. Zhang has been a silver medallist at the Beijing 2008 Paralympics and bronze medallist at the London 2012 Games. She also has been a World Champion in Suhl 2014 in the category. 

Moreover, she is a four-time Paralympic champion in R2 - women's 10 m air rifle standing SH1, R8 - women's 50 m rifle 3 positions SH1 and R6 - mixed 50 m rifle prone SH1 with her two gold medals coming at the Rio 2016 Paralympics. 

Zhang will have South Korean Sim Jae Yong and Anton Zappelli of Australia as her main rivals as she would be yearning to clinch a Paralympic gold medal in this category. 

Yong is the Beijing 2008 Paralympics bronze medallist while Zappelli is a Sydney 2019 Worlds silver medallist.
South Korea will also have Lee Jangho, the Rio 2016 Paralympics bronze medallist, to look up to for a medal winning performance in the category.

Slovakian veteran Veronika Vadovicova holds both Paralympic and world record in this category, and will be aiming her first medal in Tokyo after finishing fourth in the R2 – women’s 10m air rifle standing on day one.

India’s Avani Lekhara, who claimed her country’s first ever gold in shooting Para sport on Monday, returns in search of another podium.

Kovalchuk and Ristic the favourites in R5 final

The R5 - mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2 completes the day three schedule with Serbia’s Dragan Ristic and Ukraine’s Vasyl Kovalchuk as the top podium contenders.

Ristic is the current world record holder, Cheongju 2018 world champion and Belgrade 2018 European champion, besides silver medallist at the Sydney 2019 & Suhl 2014 World Championships.

Kovalchuk is the back-to-back Paralympic champion in the event from London 2012 and Rio 2016.
Among other top names in the category are Ukraine’s Vitaii Plakushchyi, Sydney 2019 world champion in R4 and

Cheongju 2018 Worlds silver medallist, and Turkey’s Hakan Cevik, who has the bronze from the Cheongju 2018 World Championships and a silver from the Belgrade 2018 European Championships.

USA’s McKenna Geer will also be in action. She took USA’s first-ever shooting Para sport medal in the same event at Rio 2016.

Complete schedule and results will be available on Paralympic.org.