Kathmandu, August 9:

Phool Maya Kyapchhaki of Nepal not only made an early exit but also failed to better her performance in the 10-metre Air Rifle event at the 2008 Beijing Olympics today.

After her improved performance during training in Nepal where she had scored 390 out of the total 400 points, she was at least expected to break the national record of 388 points held by Bhagawati KC, but Kyapchhaki ended up with her personal best score of 380 and finished 46th out of the 47 shooters in the qualifying. Kyapchhaki scored four points more than Turkmenistan’s Yekaterina Arabova.

In the qualifying, Kyapchhaki had a poor start when she scored 93 out of 100 points in the first round.

She improved her points to 96 and 97 points in the next two rounds respectively. She was on her way to better her personal best if not the national record, but the last round proved even worse as she ended up with just 94 points.

Kyapchhaki said the pressure of Olympics was too high to overcome. “I was a bit of nervous and the Olympic pressure is always there. I tried to improve after the bad start, but it was already too late,” Kyapchhaki said after the qualification rounds.

Coach Pradeep Khati was satisfied with Kyapchhaki’s performance. “She could not handle the pressure and it was because of lack of experience in international competitions,” he said. “Kyapchhaki’s performance is satisfactory as we maintained the Asian Games score,” he said.