The 25-year old Air Pistol Olympic Champion won the brightest medal climbing from the third place, leaving the qualification leader Boneva in third place. Bulgaria and China were awarded the Quota Places.
Olena Kostevych pocketed her second medal at the 2011 ISSF Combined World Cup in Sydney, today. The Ukrainian shooter who had won Bronze at the 10m Air Pistol Women event a few days ago, secured today’s 25m Pistol Women Gold medal with a total score of 787.3 points.
Kostevych, a 2004 Air Pistol Olympic Champion, made it to today’s final in third place, with a qualification score of 584 points. She had started three points behind the qualification’s leader, Antoaneta Boneva, but the wind turned the tables of the round.
While Boneva slid down in the placements, Kostevych climbed up in the lead with an excellent final score of 203.3 points, finishing on the highest step of the podium. The 25-year old shooter, an expert Air Pistol shooter, had never won a Gold medal in this small bore event, before.
Boneva landed in third place with a total score of 786.1 (587+199.1) points, securing the Bronze medal. But the 25-year old Bulgarian shooter did not care about the colour of the medal: by finishing in third she secured an Olympic Quota Place for her country, an entry pass for the next 2012 Games.
Finishing in second with the Silver, it was China’s Jing Yuan, 23, who secured the second Quota Place with a total score of 786.2 (584 +202.1) points.
Her teammate Chen Ying, the reigning Olympic Champion, finished in sixth and last place, with 734.0 points. The Chinese top shooter experienced a non-allowed malfunction on her second competition series, and missed four shots as she was not allowed to re-shoot the series.