LONDON, July 28: Nepal´s participation in the big arena of world sports has so far remained just a formality and it appears likely that the the trend is likely to continue during the 2012 London Olympic as well.
Shooter Sneha Rana, one of five Nepali athletes participating in the Olympics, failed to achieve her own national record in the 10 m air rifle at the London Olympics on Saturday.
Rana, the first Nepali athlete to compete in this Olympics, scored 383 points at the Royal Artillery Barracks, five points sort of her own national record.
Earlier, Rana, 18, had scored 388 points during Asian Shooting Championship held in Qatar setting a base for Olympics qualification. She had received wild card to participate in the 2012 games.
After watching the inauguration ceremony until late Friday, she had to be ready for the competition scheduled for 8:00 am.
Rana´s coach Dhruba Bikram Shah said she failed to achieve her best due to short preparation time. "Rana had better score before and she failed to improve on that. She also could not get enough time for preparation as her wild card was approved very late," Shah said.
Rana looked nervous after she failed to achieve the new national record target. Rana, participating in the Olympics for the first time, said she got nervous after she reached the shooting range and failed to achieve her target.
"I was nervous in the beginning and failed to achieve my target. As I was participating in such a big event for the first time I failed to put up my natural game," Rana said.
None of the players other than taekwondo star Deepak Bista and Sangina Baidya have made it to the final round of Olympic through qualifying rounds.
Athletics and swimming in which Nepal has been participating in Olympics regularly after the country´s Olympics debut in Tokyo games in 1964 has depended on wild card to ensure participation.
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