After earning 397 points in the 40-shot qualification round of the Women's 10m Air Rifle competition, TCU's Sarah Scherer finished 7th in her bid for a gold medal in the 2012 London Olympic Games on Saturday.
Scherer, 21, finished 7th out of a field of more than 50 shooters in the finals.
In the final round, the shooters have 10 shots to build on their qualifying round score. The closer the shot is to the center target, the more points awarded and the highest score possible in each shot is 10.9. The shooters with the three highest cumulative scores from both the qualification and final rounds win medals.
After the first shot, Scherer jumped from 7th to 5th, but that's as high as she'd go. On her second shot she fell to 6th and on her 7th shot she fell to 7th.
After the first half of the event, Scherer had been shooting progressively farther away from the center, earning scores of 10.5, 10.3, 10.3, 10.3 and 10.1. Her final five shots were scored 10.2, 10.3, 9.5, 10.3 and 10.2.
Scherer's final score was 499.0, nearly four points below China's Yi Siling who won the gold with a score of 502.9 -- and the first medal in the London Games. Poland's Sylwia Bogacka took the Silver with a score of 502.2 and China's Yu Dan won the Bronze. See the final results here.
Scherer's teammate, Jamie Beyerle Gray, finished 5th.
Scherer, who is ranked ninth in the world, has also won several NCAA championships in rifle events while at TCU including recently winning the gold in the 2011 World Cup. She was widely considered Team USA's best chance for a medal in this event.
