Olympics: Shooter McIntosh has screw loose but still hits mark

Jen McIntosh can hit her Olympic targets later this week, her coach and father Donald has said, after shrugging off a busted gun to claim the best-ever result by a Briton in Saturday's 10m air rifle in Rio.

Jen McIntosh competes in the 10m air rifle event

Capital hope McIntosh, 25, was left to sweat for ten minutes as her dad sped off to repair a loose screw that had the loading mechanism on her apparatus out of sync.

But Jen, who came 15th with a score of 414.7, showed such a cool hand under extreme pressure that it bodes well for her main event on Thursday – the 50m 3-positions.

“She’s well prepared. She knows that as long as we got the rifle back in time, she’d be fine. She was shooting in a good rhythm. There was no time pressure at all. She shoots reasonably quickly. And she was perfectly relaxed when I came back in with the rifle, despite the fact I was puffing.

“I’m really pleased with that performance. The calculation with the air rifle has been a bit sticky. There hasn’t been the smoothest of rides with it. We had some really good stuff at the start of the year and then it’s been patchy. But I’m really pleased with the really strong finish.”

It left the Capital hope just outside top eight for the final but she’ll have a better shot second time around.

“It’s a big confidence boost,” she said. “I’m looking forward to getting back in and experiencing the atmosphere.”