The Kazakh athlete won the brightest medal, followed by the first time finalist of China Dong. Three German shooters made it to the final, finishing in fourth, fifth and sixth place, just three tenths far from the podium.
Kazakhstan’s 39-year old Rifle shooter Olga Dovgun secured Gold at the 50m Rifle Three Positions Women event, during the last day of competitions at the ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events in Belgrade, Serbia.
The Kazakh Olympian secured the brightest medal with a total score of 683.8 points. Entered into the final match in first place with a qualification score of 589 points, she exploited her consistent head start of 4 points over her followers to finish in first in spite of firing today’s lowest final score, 94.8 points.
Ranked 23rd in the world in this event, Dovgun had won her last ISSF World Cup Stage back in 2007, when she had claimed a gold medal at the world cup stage held in Sydney.
The Kazakh winner was followed by the first time finalist Dong Lijie of the People’s Republic of China. The 19-year old shooter, who had never participated in an international competition before, surprised everybody today, first by making it to the final round with a qualification score of 583 points, and then by climbing up the scoreboard from the fifth place with ease. Firing today’s highest final score (100.6 points scored in spite of the wind) the young Chinese athlete ended up on the second step of the podium with a total of 683.6 points, finishing just two tenths of a point far from the Dovgun and the Gold medal. Quite an achievement for an athlete who had never competed outside China, before.
While Dovgun and Dong where fighting on the thin line of tenths, the crowd of spectators following the final was cheering for the Croatian shooter Snjezana Pejcic, a 27-year old Olympic medallist of Beijing ranked ninth in the world in this event. Starting in third place, Pejcic duelled neck and neck against the German record-setter Sonja Pfeilschifter to secure Bronze, eventually winning the duel by three tenths of a point thanks to a great 10.9 shot.
With a total score of 683.2 Pejcic grabbed Bronze, leaving the German left handed shooter Pfeilschifter in fourth place with a total score of 682.9 points.
And even if it walked out of this match without medals, the German team finished in the spotlight, today, as three German athletes made it into the final. Next to Pfeilschifter’s fourth place, Barbara Lechner closed in fifth with 682.8 points, followed by their teammate Eva Friedel, sixth with 678.1 points.