Maltese shooter Eleonor Bezzina paid the price for obtaining some low scores in the opening rounds on her debut in these Games as she missed the chance to win a medal despite reaching the final.

Bezzina showed her best in the final where her shots proved to be the second best aggregate overall – a 96.1. She ended the competition with a total of 453.1 points. Unfortunately it was too late as the scores were not enough to lift her to the medal-winning places.

Her best shots were 10.6 and 10.2 in the second and sixth rounds of the final.

In the qualifying round, nine shooters took part – two from Monaco, Cyprus and San Marino and one each from Liechtenstein, Iceland and Malta. Here Bezzina had rounds of 90, 85, 89 and 93 for a total of 357.4. She qualified for the final in seventh place.

When the competition was over, Bezzina admitted she was disappointed with her own performance: “I came here not to win a medal, but first and foremost to hit my average with normal shooting. I started badly but then shot more confidently in the late rounds. I cannot explain the fact that I registered scores of 85 and 89 when I have always registered scores of 90 plus.

“I am even more disappointed because I have always managed to achieve better scores than that registered by the winner. That means that had I been on one of my normal days, then I would have been a potential gold medal winner,” she said.

She added: “In the final I knew that I had no chance to get back in contention – not even if I managed full scores. However, I did my best.”