Two first-time finallists finished on the podium beatign the 2008 Olympic Champion Du Li of China.
France’s Emilie Evesque, a 22-year old first time finalist, made her debut in the ISSF World Cup Series at today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women event.
She had walked into the final in first place with a qualifications score of 587, but she suddenly lost her head start as she fired an unlucky 7.7 on her second competition shot
Another first time finalist, the 21-year old Chinese shooter Li Peijing, whose best international placement had been a Junior Gold medal at the 2007 Asian Championship, took advantage of Evesque defiance. Starting the medal match in second with 586, the young Chinese athlete overtook her and climbed up in the lead by shooting today’s highest final score (101.1 points)
Finishing in first place with a total score of 687.1 points, Li also pocketed an Olympic Quota Place, a 2012 Olympic spot for her country.
Evesque landed in second place, winning the Silver medal and the second Olympic Quota Place with a total score of 683.5 points.
The 2008 Olympic Champion of Beijing Du Li followed them in third place, pocketing the Bronze medal. After starting with 583 points, three points behind Li and Evesque, she climbed up the scoreboard to finish the second step of the podium with a total score of 682.2 (583+99.2) points
Croatia’s Olympian Pejcic followed in fourth place with 680.0 (583+97.0) points. Following her, Czech Republic’s, Adela Sykorova shot the best final score right to the eighth competition shot, when she fired out a 7.1 shot, finishing in fifth with 679.1 points.
The home shooter, Korea’s Kong Hyun Ah, tried to secure an Olympic Quota Place right to the last shot. The 38-year old shooter, who had been winning several ISSF medals in the mid nineties and who’s ranked 59th in the world nowadays, eventually ended up in seventh place with an overall score of 675.9 (581+94.9) points.
Following her, today’s medal match turned out to be a bitter-sweet birthday for Sweden’s Linda Oloffson, who was turning 29 today. The Swedish shooter, at her second experience in an ISSF final round, started-off her match with a disappointing 2.7 shot, falling down in eighth and last place, where she closed the match with a total score of 673.6 (582+91.6) points.
More than 500 shooters are participating in the 2011 ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup taking place in Changwon, Korea, form the 7 through the 14 of April. Twenty-four Olympic Quota Places are to be awarded during the competition.
The World Cup will continue tomorrow with the 25m Pistol Men final, kicking-off at 3 PM (GMT+9).