By Sportswriter Yan Hao

    BEIJING, Sept. 7 (Xinhua) -- Australian Libby Kosmala has been on the tenth consecutive Paralympic journey as an athlete after she started to shoot her air rifle on Sunday at the Beijing Paralympic Games.

    Qualifying for the final of women's 10m air rifle standing competition with the second rank, the 66-year-old Aussie had given an unsteady performance which eventually dragged her to the fourth place.

    However, the nine-time Paralympic gold medalist did not reveal much regret after the competition. "It was so close, so close..." she said, adding that she didn't think about the tenth gold medal in the final. "If I had thought about it, I would have done a lot worse."

    "I had a bitter last year, a long year and that's made some challenges and also made me come back again," Kosmala, a mother of two boys, said.

    Kosmala's coach Miro Sipek said after the qualification that it had been a fantastic shooting at her age and she was still improving in the last two years when the evergreen shooter shot two personal best scores.

    Kosmala did a job with 390 points in the qualification, only four points less than the world record. "I hope she can win a medal because she deserve it," Sipek added.

    Frequently been asked a possibility to become a ten-time Paralympic gold medalist, Kosmala has been in a little haste in the final, in which she made herself the first shooter to fire the rifle within 20 seconds after counting for at least four shots, although she later claimed, "I just shoot my normal way."

    "I have a few nerves and it is really a hard work," Kosmala said after the final. "It was the first final that I have done in standing like that at the Paralympics about 24 years, so it's not bad."

    Kosmala was outscored by Nilda Gomez Lopez from Puerto Rico at the final shot with an advantage of 0.1 point. The Australian slightly shook her head and soon smilingly congratulated the gold medalist Slovak Veronika Vadovicova at the shooting position beside and waved her hand to the crowd.

    Kosmala has written the longest Games record of all athletes, either Olympic or Paralympic. There is still possibility for the world to witness her extending the legend by winning a tenth gold at the tenth trip, since there are three other competitions in the Beijing Paralympics waiting for her ahead.