SHOOTER Steve Le Couilliard could not match his earlier pairs’ performance when it came to today’s smallbore rifle singles’ qualification event.

Both he and Kevin de Gruchy were disappointed with their individual performances after finishing 25th and 27th respectfully out of 37 competitors in the 50m rifle.

In the pairs shoot earlier in the week, Le Couilliard’s round would have placed him seventh, had it been a singles event.

But today he could not get near that performance, shooting: 93, 95, 97, 98, 98, 99, giving him a total of 580, compared to 589 in the pairs.

De Gruchy shot: 95, 95, 97, 97, 98, 97 giving him a total of 579, one point behind Le Couilliard.

Le Couilliard, a veteran of several Commonwealth Games, said: ‘I made a really poor start and I had to keep stopping and starting to get myself relaxed.

I did pick it up towards the end, but I knew it was too late by then although that didn’t stop me from giving it everything.

‘You can really see what a difference the hot weather training a lot of these other guys have had over the winter has made, but I suppose that’s Lottery funding for you.

‘We’ve had a fantastic time here and it’s been a great experience – we just wish we could done a little better.’ De Gruchy added: ‘I’m disappointed with my week because I haven’t shot very well in training either – there’s no excuses really.

‘But I’ve really enjoyed myself and I can say I tried my best, but it just wasn’t good enough on the day.

I always knew I was unlikely to win a medal but I was hoping to finish in the top half at least.’ Meanwhile, a Games record was broken in the 10m air pistol, in which Jersey’s David Ward and Michael Quénault finished 16th and 27th respectively out of a field of 35.

Ward shot a round of 95, 93, 99, 92, 94, 93 giving him a total of 566 out of a possible 600.

Quénault shot 90, 89, 91, 93, 92, 94 totalling 549.

Both of them missed out on the final, but top qualifier Samaresh Jung of India scored a new record score of 584 with rounds of 97, 96, 99, 98, 97, 97.

As briefly reported yesterday the first day of qualification in the Open fullbore rifle didn’t go too well for Jersey’s David Le Quesne and Richard Benest, who currently lie in 24th and 26th out of 38.

Le Quesne, who now lives in Australia, shot stage one scores of 33.02, 34.01 and 34.04 and stage two efforts of 49.05, 49.06 and 49.05 gave him a total of 248.23.

Benest shot a first stage of 33.03, 34.05 and 35.05 and a second stage of 46.04, 49.04 and 49.07 giving him a total of 246.28.

With the third stage being held tomorrow, Australia’s Bruce Scott leads with a 255.38 total.