The up-and-coming Danish Junior World Champion Nielsen duelled against the German sharpshooter Pfeilschifter right to the last shot, when the experience of the home athlete turned into a winning ace.
Today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women final at the 2011 ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events turned into a duel for Gold between the youngest and the most experienced finalists, as Stine Nielsen of Denmark (20) looking here for her first ISSF World Cup medal, challenged the home shooter Sonja Pfeilschifter, a 25-time world cup winner.
The two shooters battled throughout the entire final round, exchanging positions in first and second place, divided just by a few tenths of a point.
After the ninth shot, Nielsen held the lead by 0.3 points of advantage on the following Pfeilschifter. Therefore, the 10th and last shot turned into a sort of “shoot-off” for the brightest medal.
Marking 10.6 points, it was the expert Pfeilschifetr who snitched the Gold medal at the last shot, while a 9.7 put Nielsen in second place.
The local athlete Sonja Pfeilschifter, 40, an expert Bavarian sharpshooter who feels at home on the lines of Munich’s shooting range, had qualified for the match in third with 586 points, and finished on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 687.1 points, winning her 26th ISSF World Cup gold medal.
The 2010 Junior World Champion Stine Nielsen of Denmark had made it to the final with the highest qualification score, 586 points, and one point of advantage on his followers, finishing then in second winning the Silver (her first world cup award) with an overall score of 686.5 points.
The 20-year old shooter, who started competing in the ISSF World Cup Series this year, had won an Olympic Quota Place in Fort Benning, one month ago, becoming the only shooter to win an Olympic pass at her first participation.
“It feels great to compete with Sonja Pfeilschifer: everybody knows her, she’s the best, and that puts some extra pressure in the game.” Stine said after the match.
The 24-year old Chinese shooter Wan Xiangyan of China, ranked 25th in the world, took the Bronze medal with an overall score of 682.5 points. Entering the final match with 585 qualification points, she scored 97.5 points in the final to finish on the third step of the podium. And as both Pfeilschifter and Nielsen had already qualified for the next Games, the Chinese finalist also secured an Olympic Quota for her country.
She was followed in fourth place by USA’s Jamie Beyerle, the 27-year old world rank leader, who started-off the match in second place, with a qualification score of 585 points, finishing then with a total score of 682.2 points.
Beyerle had won two ISSF World Cup stages, this year, in Sydney and Fort Benning, climbing the world ranking up to the top.
The 2007 European champion Nathalia Kalnysh of Ukraine, closed the match in fifth with 682.2 (585+97.2) points, followed by the reigning World Champion
Barbara Lechner, who ended up with 682.0 points after entering the match by passing through a shoot-off.
The second Olympic Quota Place awarded today went to Daniela Peskova of Slovakia, a 27-year old shooter who placed 22nd at the last Games in Beijing. The Slovakian finalist, who had squeezed into the final by passing through a qualification shoot-off, closed the match in seventh place with a total score of 682.0 (584+98.0) points. Following her in eighth and last place, Great Britain’s Michelle Smith, a 28-year old athlete ranked 47th in the world competing for the first time in an ISSF World Cup final round, scored a total of 680 (585+95.7) points.