Pakistan’s sole female Olympic marksman, Kishmala Talat, was eliminated from the Paris Olympics after finishing 22nd in the Women’s 25m Pistol event on Friday. Meanwhile, her compatriot Faiqa Riaz also failed to progress in her competitions.

Talat, 22, managed a final score of 579-18x at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre, well short of qualifying for the final round. This marked her third and final event at the Paris Games, having previously placed 14th in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event alongside Gulfam Joseph, and 31st in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol individual competition.

Her performance included a 289 in the precision round (95, 99, 95) and a 290 in the rapid round (98, 93, 99), which was not enough to secure a spot in the final round led by Hungary’s Veronika Major, who equalled the Olympic record with a 592-27x.

India’s shooting sensation Manu Bhaker, the second seed in the final, continued her impressive run in Paris, having already won a bronze medal in the Women’s 10m Air Pistol and a silver in the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event.

Earlier this year, Talat secured a silver and bronze medal at the Asian Shooting Championships in Jakarta, making her the first Pakistani woman to earn a direct Olympic berth.

Talat’s impressive performance at the 2023 Shooting World Championship in Baku last year, where she scored an all-time best of 583 in the 25m pistol event and placed ninth overall, laid the foundation for her Olympic qualification.

Meanwhile, another Pakistani athlete, Faiqa Riaz, made her Olympic debut in the Women’s 100m event at the Paris Olympics. Riaz clocked a time of 12.49 seconds, but it was not fast enough to progress to the next round. Only the top three finishers in each heat advanced, and Riaz finished sixth in Heat 2 of the preliminary round, behind sprinters from Oman, American Samoa, and the UAE.

She finished 24th out of 36 participants.

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Riaz, the reigning national champion, had been eyeing the national record of 11.80 seconds after unofficially clocking 11.70 seconds during her training in Islamabad under coach Seemi Rizvi. But her time of 12.49 seconds in the Olympic prelims was not fast enough to advance to the next round, as only the top three finishers in each heat progressed.

The top seed going into the semi-finals is Ivory Coast’s Marie-Josee, who posted a blistering time of 10.87 seconds, the only sub-10.9 time of the day.