Jayson Valdez finishes 44th in air rifle prelims

Jayson Valdez

By Ivan Saldajeno

MANILA—Jayson Valdez's stint in the Tokyo Olympics men's 10-meter air rifle event did not end well as he missed out on the Top 8 finish during the preliminary phase on Sunday at the Asaka Shooting Range in the Japanese capital.

Valdez finished 44th out of 47 participants after totaling 612.6 points after six rounds of play.

He was way off the cut for the medal round as China's Sheng Lihao took the last spot in the final with 629.2 points, beating ninth placer Mahyar Sedaghat of Iran by just 0.1 point.

Sheng's teammate Yang Haoran topped the first round and even broke the Olympic record for the qualifying phase by scoring 632.7 points, beating the 630.2 points of Italy's Niccolo Campriani during the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Yang's feat was just 0.8 point shy of the world record set by Hungary's Peter Sidi in 2013.

Both Campriani and Sidi did not join this Tokyo Olympics.

Completing the Final 8 are Americans Lucas Kozeniesky and William Shaner, Slovakian Patrik Jany, Turkish Omer Akgun, Russian Vladimir Maslennikov, and Hungarian Istvan Peni.

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