Avani Lekhara, Mona Agarwal advance to Women’s 10m Air Rifle SH1 Finals

Avani Lekhara and Mona Agarwal have qualified for the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 Finals at the Paris Paralympics, with Avani finishing second and Mona fifth in the qualifying round.

New Delhi: Tokyo Paralympic gold medallists Avani Lekara and Mona Agarwal have successfully qualified for the Women’s 10m Air Rifle Standing SH1 Final at the Paris Paralympic Games on Friday (August 30), marking another impressive milestone in their sporting careers. Both athletes displayed outstanding skills in the qualifying rounds and will now compete for a podium position, aiming to add to India’s growing tradition in the sport of para-shooting.

Avani Lekhara finished second with an excellent score of 625.8 points among the 17 women qualifiers, while Mona Agarwal finished fifth with 623.1 points. Their outstanding performances have prepared them well for the upcoming finals.

Topping the leaderboard was Ukraine’s Iryna Shchetnik, who set a new Paralympic qualifying record with 627.5 points, surpassing the record set by China’s Zhang Cuiping at the Tokyo Olympics.

The SH1 rating is for shooters with lower limb disabilities (such as amputations or paraplegia) who are able to comfortably hold the gun and shoot from a standing or sitting position.

Avani made history at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games by becoming the first Indian woman to win two medals at a single Paralympic Games. She won gold in the 10m air rifle and bronze in the 50m rifle three positions in the SH1 class in her Summer Olympic debut.

The Indian shooting team consists of 10 athletes: Avani, Manish Narwal, Amir Ahmad Bhat, Rudransh Khandelwal, Mona Agarwal, Rubina Francis, Swaroop Mahavir Unhalkar, Sidhartha Babu, Shriharsha Devaraddi and Nihal Singh.