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Finals 10m Air Pistol Women

10m Air Pistol W – Tirode (FRA) and Arunovic (SRB) duelled for Gold

ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol · Munich, GER

France’s Tirode duelled against the reigning World Champion Arunovic right to the last shot to secure the brightest medal.

The last competition day at the 2011 ISSF World Cup in Munich was opened by the 10m Air Rifle Women final, where three Olympic Quota Places had to be assigned today.

 

The winner of the match, the French shooter Stephanie Tirode, secured the first Quota to be assigned, bringing back to France another competition spot at the 2012 Olympic Games.

The 36-year old athlete entered this final match in second place, tying the qualification’s leader Arunovic with 388 points.

Then, shooting with consistently, she marked 100.3 points throughout the ten-shot final, finishing on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 488.3 points.

 

Tirode had won her last ISSF World Cup stage back in 2008, in Beijing.

 

“I am very happy because I am back to a good level after missing for a while. I have not been shooting at my best in the last period.” The French shooter said right after the final.

 

“It has been a nice battle, because Zorana and I know each other since a long time. At the same time, it has been very exciting.” Tirode commented on the head to head battle against her Serbian opponent.

 

 “I tried to stay concentrate on my shooting, even if I knew that she was close to me. Especially at the last shot, when I zeroed in trying to manage the pressure.”  

 

Climbing up to the highest step of the podium, the French shooter upset the reigning world champion, the 24-year old Serbian shooter Zorana Arunovic.

 

The Serbian shooter, who had entered today’s final in the lead with a qualification score of 388 points, led the match right to the fourth shot, when she fired a 9.0 which dropped her in second place.

 

With a total score of 487.5 points Arunovic – who had already qualified for the 2012 Games by winning last year’s World Championship – eventually won the Silver medal, her first ISSF World Cup medal ever.

 

The four-time Olympian Lalita Yauhleuskaya of Australia, winner of an ISSF World Championship Silver medal here in Munich last year, followed them in thirs place securing the Bronze with a total of 484.2 points.

The 47-year old shooter, ranked fifth in the world, had already won an Olympic Quota Place at last year’s ISSF World Championship.

 

Park Minjin, the 24-year old shooter who had won last year’s ISSF World Cup stage in Sydney, climbed up the scoreboard – starting form the seventh place with 385 points after the qualifications, she ended up in fourth place with 483.1 points.

 

She was followed in fifth by Liubov Yaskevich, a 26-year old Russian pistol shooter, who secured the second available quota. She had started the match with the lowest qualification score, 385 points, after squeezing into the final by passing through a shoot-off. Then, shooting constantly, she climbed up to the fifth place with an overall score of 482.8 points. 

The third Olympic Quota went to Poland, won by Beata Bartkow Kwiatkowska, who finished in seventh place with 481.5 points.

 

The home shooter, Germany’s Julia Hochmuth, 23, participating here in her first ISSF World Cup stage, closed the match in eighth and last place, jeopardizing her chances of victory at her third competition shot, when she marked an unlucky 7.1-point shot which pulled her down in the placements.  

 

Marco Dalla Dea

 

ISSF Partners