10m Air Rifle Women – Bavaria beat Baden Wuerttemberg in a German duel

It has been the last shot to decide the podium placements of the 10m Air Rifle Women final, at the ISSF World Cup Final in Rifle and Pistol event in Munich, where a German duel kept the Bavarian spectator breathless right to the end.

The two home ahtletes, Germany’s Beate Gauss and Sonja Pfeilschifter, from Baden and Bavaria respectively, fought throughout the whole final match, trying to secure the brightest medal tenth after tenth.

Gauss, who had made it into the final with a great world record score of 400 points, had a one-point lead over her teammate Pfeilschifter after the qualifications. But, as the final match started, the two German shooters exchanged their positions in first and second place several times.

After the ninth shot, it was Gauss who was leading with 0.9 points of advantage. But it was then the tenth and last shot that decided the match in favour of Pfeilschifeter, who scored an outstanding 10.7 beating Gauss’s 9.4, triggering the applauses of the Bavarian audience.

Sonja Pfeilschifer, 39, secured the title with a total score of 503.5 points, winning her fourth World Cup Final on the lines of the 1972 Olympic Shooting Range of Munich (she had won three consecutive World Cup Final editions held here in 1999, 2000 and 2001).

26-year old Beate Gauss, ranked third in the world, had qualified for this year’s ISSF World Cup Final by securing a Bronze medal at the World Cup Stage held in Beijing, and by competing in the World Championship final match. During the morning’s qualifications, she ranked first with a great 400-point score, but after firing that disappointing 9.4-shot she landed in second place, grabbing the Silver medal with a total of 503.1 points, just two tenths far from Pfeilschifter.

While the two home shooters were duelling for the top of the podium, the battle for Bronze kept the TV spectator’s breath. Katerina Emmons of Czech Republic, Eliana Nardelli of Italy and Jamie Bayerle of USA fought indeed right to the end for the last spot on Munich’s podium.

The 2008 Olympic Champion Katerina Emmons came back to an ISSF World Cup Final after missing since 2007. The Czech shooter qualified to participate in this match by winning a World Cup Stage in Sydney, at the beginning of the season. With 397 qualification points, she made it into the final match in third place, but then closed the round in fifth with a total of 498.6 points after nailing two consecutive 9.8 shots.

The battle for Bronze finished in a shoot-off between Elania Nardelli, today’s youngest finalist, and USA’s Jamie Beyerle, one of the protagonists of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series.

And it was the experienced Beyerle who secured the Bronze, winning the shoot-off 10.5 to 9.8, finishing on the podium with a total of 499.2 + 10.5 points, and leaving Nardelli in fourth with a total score of 499.2 + 9.8 points.