Davies fails to make shooting final (From Dudley News)

Davies fails to make shooting final

10:56am Sunday 2nd September 2012 in Sport

NORTON shooter Richard Davies’ Paralympic dream is over after he failed to qualify for the final.

The 41-year-old could only finish 16th in qualifying for the mixed R4-10m air rifle standing event at Woolwich Barracks this morning.

Early errors proved costly as his score of 596 out of 600 was two marks away from making a shoot-off for the final.

Korea's Juyoung Kang went on to claim gold in the final.

In a sport where the margins between success and failure are miniscule, Davies’ challenge was effectively over by the halfway stage.

With each shooter having 60 shots, Davies missed the centre of the target with three of his first 30 attempts and could not recover enough ground despite a strong finish.

Fellow Briton’s Adam Fontain and Ryan Cockbill also failed to qualify, finishing 20th and 21st respectively.

Speaking afterwards, Davies could not hide his disappointment.

He said: "I was number one in the world for a while last year, I’m reigning British champion two times running, and I even shot an equal world record in this venue last week, so coming in I was full of beans.

“I just couldn't get it together on the day. Four points doesn’t seem like much out of 600 but ultimately you miss and that’s it. I’m desperately disappointed but I’m counting down to Rio now.

“On a positive note it's a Paralympic PB for me and a Paralympic debut.

“You can't predict in the equation just how nervous you will be on the day and it was a learning curve to say the least.”