Jayson Valdez made strides in the last three series to end his Olympic debut on a decent note despite not making the finals of the men’s 10-meter air rifle of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Shooting tournament at the Asaka Shooting Center, Sunday.
The 25-year-old scored 130.6 and 130.5 in the fourth and fifth series to bring his numbers up and move notches to 44th place and a total of 612.6.
Valdez, a second-generation athlete, almost went to an all-10’s series in the fourth one, but was an inch short on his seventh shot of the series with 9.8.
The first-time Olympian got close to scoring the highest possible score of 10.9 twice as he scored 10.8 in both series 5 and 6.
China’s Yang Haoran paced the pack with a total of 632.7, which turned out to be the new Olympic Qualification Record. The result squashed the former record of 630.2 set by Italy’s Niccolo Campriani in 2016 Rio.
Valdez is the second Filpino who bowed out of medal contention on Sunday after Cris Nievarez missed the cut in rowing’s men’s singles sculls.
