IN HIS debut at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Jayson Valdez scored 612.6 points, good for a rank of 44th out of 47 competitors in the Men’s 10m air rifle event. Valdez’s performance came up short of the top eight rank finish required to advance to the final round. Both the qualification round and the final round was held at the Asaka Shooting Range in Tokyo, Japan.

A shaky start from Valdez can be attributed to his struggles, in which he tallied only 101.3, 100.5, and 101.6 points in his first 30 shots. Valdez showed resilience during his recovery in the latter half of the qualification round, scoring 103.6, 103.5, and 102.1 points between the fourth and sixth round. However, the 612.6 points Valdez tallied placed him 16.6 points below the 629.2 scored by eighth-placer and eventual silver medalist Sheng Lihao of China—ending Valdez’s run in the qualification round.

In the final round, William Shaner secured the gold medal by scoring an Olympic record 251.6, edging out Sheng’s 250.9 points. The bronze medal was clinched by China’s Haoran Yang, who tallied 229.4 points.

While the outcome was not ideal for Valdez, he is still the first Filipino shooter to compete in the Summer Olympics since Paul Brian Rosario in 2012.