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Finals 10m Air Pistol Women

Guo confirms her 10m Air Pistol Women title

XXX Olympic Games · London, GBR

China rockets in the medal standings with a Gold medal won by Guo Wenjun at the 10m Air Pistol Women event. Like four years ago, the Chinese ace shooter is not scared by her opponents, and proved it on the shooting line.

China’s 28-year old Guo Wenjun won today’s 10m Air Pistol Women final at the Royal Artillery Barracks, the shooting venue of the 2012 London Olympics.

 

The Chinese shooter confirmed the title she had won four years ago, shooting in front of her home public in Beijing.

 

Entering the final match with 388 points after the qualifications, Guo shot 100.1 points in the final, fighting head and head against the 2004 Olympic Champ Olena Kostevych of Ukraine and France’s Olympic hope Celine Goberville. With a  total score of 488.1 points, Guo eventually secured the brightest medal with 1.5 points of advantage on her followers.

 

"This one is the heaviest." She said commenting on her medal. "I am so excited. It means I am the best."

Guo did not perform at her best, in the last two seasons. The 2008 Olympic Champion had indeed rapidly dropped from the first to the 13th place in the world ranking. But she never gave up, and prepared the Olympic going through heavy training sessions. Coming in London, she said that she was not scared by her opponents. And she repeated that after winning the final,

"I am just focused on competition and not on the competitors," the young Chinese shooter said, commenting on the final, "Everyone is quite good I just never give up.”

The fight for the Silver medal between Olena Kostevych and Celine Goberville finished in favor of the latter. Both the shooters qualified with 387 points and both fired 99.6 points during the final match, so that it was a shoot-off to decide the medal. Goberville shot first, marking a 10.6-point shot, which defeated Kostevych’s 9.7.

"I am very happy. It is my first Olympic Games and I wanted to win something for me and for the French nation. I can't believe I did something so good." 25-year old Goberville said.

"You train to win. But I wanted to achieve something. My focus this year was the Olympics. I am very happy to come away with something. This is inspiring, for me." She said.

"To get a medal is not new for me – the 2004 Olympic Champion Kostevych said, after loosing the shoot-off - Today, the qualification was difficult. I felt like I had too much attention from people, so I felt pressure to perform. I have done my best today but I think I could do better. I have got a potential, maybe, I will be better in the next four years."

The current World Champion, Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic placed in seventh, with a total score of 483.5 (385+98.5) points. At the same time, the Czech multi-medalist Lenka Maruskova – one of the favorites - ended up in eighth place with a total score of 482.6 (385+97.6) points. “In the final shooting eight is simply not good enough. I should have concentrated more." She said, after shooting a two times in the eighth ring. "Nothing disturbed me, it was simply a bad day for me. These days happen, unfortunately. The more I tried the more I failed. It's a big disappointment. The qualification was good but the final just not good enough."

 

 

 

 

 

Marco Dalla Dea

 

ISSF Partners