Grozdeva peaks for the World Championship: at the last ISSF World Cup Stage of the season she won her second Gold medal back to back, climbing the world ranking up to the first place.
The two-time Olympic Champion Maria Grozdeva of Bulgaria won the 25m Pistol Women final at the ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events in Belgrade, Serbia, claiming her second World Cup gold back to back.
The 38-year old Bulgarian athlete shot the highest final score, 206.7 points, climbing up in the lead from the fifth place she had gained throughout the qualification.
Finishing in first place with a total score of 790.7 (584+206.7) points, Grozdeva secured her second consecutive World Cup Gold medal, following her success at the previous ISSF World Cup stage held in Fort Benning (USA) last May.
At the same time the Bulgarian shooter, who has won an impressive number of 25 world cup medals in this event during her sport career, secures the first place in the world ranking, and seems to be one of the favourites in the fight for the first 2012 Olympic Quota Places, that will be assigned at the next ISSF World Championship to be held in Munich from July 29th through August 10th.
Following her on the podium, the French shooter Celine Goberville placed in second grabbing Silver with a total score of 790.6 (588+202.6) points. The 23-year old shooter had finished on the podium also a couple of days ago, as she won the 10m Air Pistol Women event. Goberville, competing on the international scene since the end of the nineties, had never won an ISSF medal prior to this world cup stage of Belgrade.
The Bronze medal was taken by the Olympic Champion of Seoul 1988, Georgia’s Nino Salukvadze, 41, who closed the match in third with a total score of 788.3 points. Qualified with 586 points, the Georgian shooter scored 202.3 points throughout the final to win her first medal of the season.
The home shooter and local hero, Serbia’s Jasna Sekaric followed them placing in fourth with a total score of 786.0 points, 2.3 points far from the podium. The 44-year old shooter, a five-time Olympic medallist, had won the first world cup stage of the year, held in Sydney (AUS).