Singapore shooter Teh Xiu Hong misses out on qualifying for 25m pistol final at Olympics

SINGAPORE – National shooter Teh Xiu Hong finished 12th out of 40 competitors in the women’s 25m pistol qualification on Aug 2, narrowly missing out on a spot in an Olympic final.

With only eight final spots available, the 30-year-old’s total score of 583 from the precision and rapid rounds saw her missing out by just two points. Hungary’s Veronika Major qualified in top spot with 592.

There was disappointment for Teh, who felt that she could have made the final, especially as she believed she had grown significantly as a shooter in the 1½ months leading up to the Paris Games.

During that time, she trained in South Korea, before heading to Croatia, Hungary and finally Paris.

“I did pretty well in precision and my precision was something I’ve been struggling with for a long time. I did pretty well this time around, it gives me a bit of pressure for rapid,” said Teh, who did not make the 10m pistol final on July 27 after finishing 32nd out of 44 shooters in her Olympic debut.

“Usually precision is the one that is not so good, rapid is better. I did better in precision and I knew I had the chance to go into finals, that added a little bit of pressure going into rapid. It’s something for me to reflect on.”

Although she missed out on the final, Teh, a World Cup gold medallist, hopes to bring the lessons learnt from the past few months into her upcoming competitions.

She said: “Deep down I know I’m a good shooter and somehow I know I can do it, it’s just a matter of time. Because I’m always so close, it keeps pushing me every time.

“In the last 1½ months, there was a lot of improvement. I learnt so much, during training it really went very well. Unfortunately I couldn’t really bring that out here, but I’m excited for my future competitions.”