The Australian Shooting Team are struggling to shake the curse of fourth place that plagued them throughout the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, with Ashley Adams again finishing fourth at the 2010 International Paralympic Committee Shooting World Championships in Zagreb, Croatia overnight.

The  four-time Paralympian from Queensland narrowly missed out on a place on the medal podium losing a shootout with Israel’s Doron Shaziri in the R7 50m Free Rifle 3x40. Shaziri held to nerve to take the bronze medal in the tense showdown, leaving Adams with the disappointment of another fourth place finish at a major championship.

The two men finished the preliminary and final rounds of competition on identical scores of 1243.3, forcing a shoot-out for third place.

In a one shot shoot-out, Adams’ 8.4 was not enough to snatch the bronze from Shaziri who shot 10.1.

At the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, Australia’s shooters left with three fourth places, two of them going to Adams in the R1 10m Air Rifle Standing and the R6 Free Rifle Prone. Paralympic
veteran Libby Kosmala was responsible for the remaining fourth position at the Beijing Games, missing out on the medal in her pet event, the R2 Air Rifle Standing, for which she is ranked number two in the world.

But despite his frustration thus far in Croatia, Adams’ fourth place shows improvement from Beijing where he finished ninth in the same event.

The Australians will continue their World Championships campaign tonight (AEST) with pistol shooter Steve McCormack in his second event for the tournament as well as Beijing Paralympian Jason Maroney and newcomers Luke Cain and Bradley Mark entering their first event at the Championships in the R4 10m Air Rifle Standing.

By Rebekka Wake