The Finnish trap shooter won the Trap women Gold medal match, beating the home shooter Zhu to step again on top of Beijing podium six years after her victory at the 2008 Olympic Games.
Finland's Satu Makela-Nummela won the Trap Women final, the first Shotgun medal match of the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Beijing.
The 43-year old Finnish shooter came back atop of an ISSF world cup podium 8 years after her last victory, that she had claimed at the 2006 ISSF World Cup in Suhl, Germany.
Makela-Nummela knows Beijing's shooting range very well. Here, on the 11 of August 2008, Satu beat Slovakia's Zuzana Stefecekova and and USA's Corey Cogdell to be crowned Olympic Champion.
That was an epic and historical win. Epic, because the Finnish shooter defeated her opponents keeping the lead of the match from the qualifications right to the last final shot, setting a new final Olympic record, in spite of being a first-time Olympian. Historical, because the last Olympic Gold won by Finland in shooting sport dated back to 1964.
“The shooting range looks like six years ago. Same background, same weather, and same layouts.” Makela-Nummela said here in Beijing. “It's a nice feeling to compete and win again on the same layout of the 2008 Olympic Games.”
“There's something special, in being back here in Beijing.”
Today, she pocketed the brightest medal beating the home shooter Zhu Jingyu 13 to 12 his at the Gold medal match, after scoring 14 clays in the semi-final, and qualifying with 72 hits.
“The last qualification round has been the most difficult one... and then I gave my best in the semi-final, so I was a bit out of energies during the Gold medal match. I am happy that I finally made it.”
“The World Championship is in my sights: that's the most important competition of the year.” The Finnish shooter concluded, looking forward to the 51st ISSF World Championship, that will take place in Granada, starting from September 7, this year. There, the first quota places for Rio 2016 will be assigned, and Makela-Nummela is chasing a spot in her third Olympic Games after Beijing and London.
Here in Beijing, she beat the Chinese athlete Zhu Jingyu, who placed in second with 12 hits in the Gold medal match, 13 hits in the semi-final and 72 hits in the qualifications. The 22-year old shooter from Shan Dong had never won an ISSF medal, before.
Another world cup first-time medallist – Hye Gyong Chae, 30, from the Democratic People's Republic of Korea – pocketed the Bronze medal with 13 hits, after shooting-off 1 to 0 the 10-time world cup and two-time Olympic Silver medallist Zuzana Stefecekova of Slovakia.
Chae qualified with 71 hits and passed through a seven-way shoot-off to access the semi-final, where she shot 11 clays to advance to the Bronze medal match.
Mariya Dimitriyenko, 26, from Kazakhstan followed the medal match contenders, ending up her first semi-final ever in fifth place with 10 hits, after being shot-off by Stefecekova. Korea's Eom Soyeon, 26, closed the match in sixth place, with 9 hits in the semi-final.