KUALA LUMPUR: Johnathan Wong's Olympic dream ended early today in Paris as he missed the cut for the men's 10-metre air pistol final.
The 31-year-old could only finish 26th out of 33 shooters after scoring 570 points in the qualification round at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.
The shooter from Melaka failed to improve on his national record of 585 points (set in 2015). At the 2016 Rio Olympics, he finished 28th in the 10m air pistol event, and 37th in the 50m pistol.
Only the top eight shooters in the qualification round advance to the final tomorrow.
Johnathan, making his second Olympic appearance after the Rio 2016 edition, shot 96, 95, 97, 95, 93, 94 in the six series.
Serbia's Damir Mikec topped the qualifier with 584 points, followed by Italian Federico Nilo Maldini (581) and Christian Reitz of Germany (580).
"My scores were not satisfactory. Before we came here, we targeted more than that. The scoring among the top eight (in the qualifier) were also not too high this time," said a disappointed Johnathan.
"We prepared well, and I'm disappointed that my result was not satisfactory.
"I need to thank all who helped me, my coach, the National Sports Institute. We prepared better compared to the previous one (2016 Olympics).
"Also my teammates in Malaysia supported me a lot. I didn't check my Instagram, but I saw a lot of good luck wishes, I couldn't reply because I was focused on the Games. I thank everyone who supported me."
Johnathan is the third national shooter to compete in the Olympics after Joseph Chong in 1956, Melbourne and Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi in 2012, London.
Since Malaysia started taking part in the Olympics, 1956, no Malaysian shooter has qualified for the final in any event.