By sportswriter Bai Xu　

    BEIJING, Sept. 10 (Xinhua) -- Taking a glimpse at the screen that showed her score, the 66-year-old Australian shooter on wheelchair turned around, poker-faced.

    Her coach hurried to walk over and help Libby Kosmala take off her green leather shooting suit -- she had been exhausted by the 135-minute qualification round of women's 50-meter sport rifle three positions event.

    "I didn't do quite well today," the elderly lady appeared dejected.

    Oldest shooter to the Beijing Paralympics, she was ranked ninth in the qualification with 556 points, a near miss from the final.

    However, the fact that Kosmala could appear in her tenth Paralymic itself was already a milestone.　

    INTO SPORTS

    Born with disability in Adelaide of south Australia in 1942, the lady saw her life changed at the age of 20.

    "I was visiting someone in a hospital, while another man said to me, 'why not try sports'," she recalled.

    The man told her that there were lots of disabled people like her played together each Saturday.

    "I thought, well, maybe I could meet some boy," Kosmala said jokingly.

    It was quite an interesting experience for the lady.

    At first she tried javelin, but was hit later. "That's too dangerous," she soon gave up.

    Then she tried discus, but hit someone else on the head.

    "I will never do that anymore," she cried, before a boy, who she later found out to be living near her home, said, "if you don't come next Saturday, I will pick you up from home."

    However, it turned out that she didn't need him to pick her up. She started doing sports ever since.

    Four years later, the lady went to a domestic competition representing her state, and clinched medals in every sport she competed: swimming, archery, wheelchair racing and fencing.

    Kosmala's getting involved in shooting was quite by chance.

    "When I was practicing archery one day, a boy came over and said 'come with me, let's do shooting'," she recalled.

    Her reply was "no".

    But when she picked up a rifle and fired in the shooting range, she easily scored a 10 point.

    The excited newcomer aimed for a while and fired again. Another 10.

    "People said I was born to be a shooter, and hence I started," she said.

    Then the story was simple: "if you keep winning, you will enjoy."