Jacobsson looms large at Royal Artillery Barracks

Chinese shooter Zhang Cuiping clinched silver in the R6 mixed 50m Rifle prone SH1 at Beijing 2008 and is in medal-winning form at London 2012, claiming the first gold medal of the Games in the women's 10m Air Rifle SH1.

The only event on the programme at the Royal Artillery Barracks on Tuesday (4 September) is the R6 mixed 50m Rifle prone SH1 and Jonas Jacobsson has won every gold medal in this event since it was introduced at the Sydney 2000 Paralympic Games.

After his gold medal in this event at the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games, Jacobsson started competing in International Shooting Sport Federation events in order to try and earn a spot at the London 2012 Olympic Games in the men's 50m Rifle prone. He missed the Olympic berth by 0.2 points, but made a final in the event at the ISSF world cup at Changwon, Korea in 2011.

Jacobsson goes into this event as the overwhelming favourite to add a gold medal to his silver medal in the men’s R1 10m Air Rifle standing SH1 event on Day 1 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

Shooters that may trouble Jacobbson, however, include former army sniper Doron Shaziri from Israel who won a silver medal in this event at Sydney 2000 and bronze at the Athens 2004 Paralympic Games. He was also runner-up at the IPC world championships in Spain in May 2011.

Chinese shooter Zhang Cuiping is another who could feature prominently. She clinched silver in this event at Beijing 2008 and Zhang is in medal-winning form at London 2012, claiming the first gold medal of the Games in the women's 10m Air Rifle SH1 on Thursday (30 August) as well as a bronze medal in the mixed 10m Air Rifle prone SH1 on Saturday (1 September).

Another shooter to keep an eye on is Australia’s Ashley Adams. He won a silver medal at Athens 2004 and won the IPC World Cup in Spain in May 2011 as well as silver at the 2010 World Championships in Zagreb. Spectators should keep a look out for Adams’ outfit on Day 6 after he struggled with conditions in his earlier events at London 2012.

"I've come over from Australia and I've been training in 25 degrees,” he said after the men's 10m Air Pistol SH1 qualification round on Day 2.

“You come in here and it's 12 degrees - a lot less than you were expecting it to be.”

"I'm going to go into town and buy some warm gear and a beanie," he said.

Adams will be pleased to know the forecast is for 23 degrees Celsius on Day 6 of the London 2012 Paralympic Games, although he will need more than just good weather to beat this tough field.

There are 48 shooters in the qualification, which is scheduled to start at 9:00 at the Royal Artillery Barracks.

Related Images

Imagen

Caption

Chinese shooter set a new world record on way to Paralympic Games glory.

Imagen

Caption

Ashley Adams at the 2007 Oceania Shooting Championships. He was involved in a fatal motorcycle accident on Tuesday (17 March 2015)