By Will Jennings in Paris

SEONAID McINTOSH believes battling through a technical malfunction and ‘crisis in confidence’ can supply her with the steel to challenge for a medal at the Olympics.

The Scottish shooter, 28, was struck with a rotten slice of luck in her 10m air rifle event as her sight cracked in the warm-up and her dad and coach were forced to step in and fix it.

All that occurred while McIntosh’s rivals began shooting in qualification and the 2018 world champion was never able to recover.

She could only muster a 37th-place finish and will now turn her attention to Thursday’s 50m rifle 3 position event, the discipline where she currently sits as world No.1 and the one she knows she has the greatest chance of a medal.

McIntosh hailed her dad for saving the day at the eleventh hour and hopes to finally banish her psychological demons when she takes to the Chateauroux Shooting Centre once again in three days’ time.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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The Scot, who also slumped to a 26th place finish in the mixed team event alongside Mike Bargeron on Saturday, said: "It was a lot of thoughts all at once.

“But at the same time, it’s Dad’s job is to fix it, and I trust him to be able to do that.

"Unfortunately the poor man has had to do this four times now, because this has happened at almost every Games he’s been to with me.

"I felt bad for him initially, but I just had to trust he would fix it as fast as he could, and I just had to keep breathing and keep as calm as I could.

“My job is to do the shooting part – there’s nothing you can do after he’s fixed the gun other than leave it in my hands, so that’s my job.

“I was struggling. Yesterday I had a bit of a crisis in confidence.

“I rallied myself to come in today and was prepared to work really hard on the process.”

McIntosh has been a consistent performer on the international stage since Tokyo – where she failed to qualify for either individual final – and now hopes to pick herself up in her favoured 3 position event.

And she’ll be taking no chances with her equipment, adding: “I had a look at the sight afterwards and there’s a big crack in it.

“I’ll be a bit more cautious with my 50m gun, make sure everything’s packed safely.”

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