Coates misses final target
7 September 2008by Paul Rushton
The listing was posted by WheelPower - British Wheelchair Sport - News
A desperately disappointed Di Coates narrowly missed out on a final place in her bid to win a ninth Paralympic Games gold medal for Britain.
The 54-year-old shooter from Yateley in Hants missed her target by just one point when she finished 10th in the qualifying round of the R2-10m air rifle standing. Coates shot a total of 385 over the four series to finish agonisingly short of four shooters on 386. With eight to go through to the final it wasn’t enough.
“I’ve been shooting really well in training,” said Coates. “I was fine until I pressed the match button today.”
Coates was Paralympic champion in this event at every Games from Seoul 1988 to Sydney 2000 and after a disappointing seventh in Athens she was chasing a ninth medal in Beijing in her seventh Games.
She started well enough, hitting a maximum 10 with her first effort, but ultimately paid the price for a below-par first series in which she scored 94 from her 10 shots. She rallied in the second, posting 98 but despite third and fourth rounds of 96 and 97 was left short of the mark.
“I couldn’t get into a rhythm at first,” she said. “But with shooting the harder you try the worse it gets.
“I managed to pull it back but it was too late. If I’d shot 10 on my last one I would have been in the final.”
To make matters worse the top qualifier Veronika Vadovicova of Slovakia scored just 392, while Coates said she has been firing 395 regularly in training. All the scores were below standard as reigning champion Manuela Schmermund of Germany finished the round in fourth place, four points behind the leader.