Tokyo Paralympics 2020: India's Rubina Francis Finishes Seventh In10m Air Pistol Finals

Para-shooter Rubina Francis finishes at seventh position with 128.5 points in the finals of the Women's 10m Air Pistol Standing SH1 in the ongoing Tokyo Paralympics on Tuesday. With this, her journey at the Paralympics comes to an end. She had advanced to the finals of the showpiece event after finishing at seventh position with 560 points.

#ShootingParaSport Update

Rubina finishes P2 Women’s 10m Air Pistol SH1 Final at 7th position with 128.5 points

She played well in her debut #Paralympics and we are proud of her

All the best Rubina for future competitions#Praise4Para#Paralympics#Tokyo2020

— SAI Media (@Media_SAI) August 31, 2021

Congratulations to @rubina_francis for qualifying for Women's 10m Air Pistol SH1 Final. The entire nation is rooting for you. #Praise4Para pic.twitter.com/Llxk9aDLPx

— Deepa Malik (@DeepaAthlete) August 31, 2021

The shooter from Madhya Pradesh was in action in the 10m Air Pistol Standing SH1 finals at 8.30 am. SH1 sport class is designated to athletes with upper and/ or lower limb impairment for competition in Pistol events.

She had secured a quota for the Tokyo Paralympics after clinching gold at Peru's World Shooters Para-Sports Championship in June this year. She entered the competition as India's highest-ranked female para-shooter. The 21-year-old hails from Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. She competes in 10m air pistol events. During the Para World Cup, she scored a total of 238.1 points in the event and surpassed the previous world record of 237.1 points set by Turkey's Aysegul Pehlivanlar.

Francis was born with a disability in her leg. She was just 16 when she started her career with the support of her parents and took up the sport professionally in 2015. She credits her success to the support of many academies and coaches. She joined Olympic medallist Gagan Narang's shooting academy and played in her first international competition in 2017. The shooter told Firstpost that she wanted to pursue something else besides studies in school, so with the support of her father she got selected in the shooting academy. "That is how the interest developed," she added sharing how her journey started from there. She said her parents backed her dreams and that is how she took up shooting. More Tokyo Paralympics 2020 news here.

Francis, the daughter of a mechanic in Jabalpur, had helped set a junior world record in the 10m air pistol women team event at the World Shooting Para Sports Championship in Bangkok in 2017. She won a gold there. She has brought home a bronze from the 2019 world para championship in Croatia.

In May 2021, she was diagnosed with COVID-19 that halted her preparation for the qualifying event.

Feature Image Credit: Agniban