The second day of the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl (GER) awarded three more individual Gold medals, as Paolo Monna of Italy pocketed his very first international Gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol Men Junior event, followed by multi-ISSF medallist Anna Korakaki of Greece in the 10m Air Pistol Women Junior event.
In the opening event of the day, German Rifle shooter Tina Lehrich, a Gold and Silver medallist at last year’s Junior Cup in Suhl, claimed the top of the podium in the 3 Positions Women event.
50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Junior
Competing on his home turf, Germany’s Tina Lehrich confirmed herself as one of most promising junior Rifle shooters of the international scene, claiming her second Junior Gold medal in two consecutive years in Suhl.
Lehrich, who finished 1st at last year’s Junior Cup in the 3P event, led the final match since the very beginning, closing both the kneeling and the prone series in 1st place. During the following standing series she slipped in 2nd place only once, after hitting a disappointing 8.3, but quickly regained her focus and closed with four consecutive shots into the 10th-ring, sealing the victory with the final score of 453.8 points.
In 2nd place, with 451.5, finished France’s Emilie Winterberger, while the podium was completed by Russia’s Olga Efimova, 3rd with 438.7 points.
India’s Gaayathri Nithyanadam, who was in 2nd place at the end of the first two positions series, placed 4th with 428.7 points, followed by Katerina Kolarikova, 5th with 417.0 and by Norway’s Jenny Vatne, 6th with 406.5.
Two Finnish athletes closed the final scoreboard in the bottom two positions: Emmi Hyrkas, who placed 7th with 394.8 points, preceded her teammate Henna Viljanen, 8th with 394.6.
In the team ranking, Finland’s Hyrkas and Viljanen were joined by Saana Peltonen on the highest step of the podium, followed by Silver medallists Winterberger, Manon Simon and Ines Niewada of France, and by Natalia Kochanska, Katarzyna Komorowska and Klaudia Tomaszewska of Poland.
For the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Junior complete results click here.
10m Air Pistol Men Junior
Italy’s first individual Gold medal in Suhl arrived in the Air Pistol event, where Paolo Monna finished 1st after sealing the qualification round with the best collective score, also securing the team Gold medal along with his teammates Alessio Torracchi and Matteo Bertaiola.
Monna, who previously competed only on a continental level, secured the top of the podium with a consistent performance, building a gap on his closest opponent that touched the 2.7-points mark, and closing with 198.8 points. 2.5 more than Silver medallist Gvido Cvetkovs of Latvia.
On the 3rd step of the podium placed Artem Chernousov of the Russian Federation, the Junior Cup Silver medallist last year here in Suhl, who lost the 2nd place with two disappointing shots in the 8th-ring and finished with 174.9 points.
4th, just outside of the podium positions, finished Switzerland’s Marvin Flueckiger with 156.0 points, followed by another Russian shooter, Alexander Bassariev, 5th with 135.0 points, Ukraine’s Pavlo Krepostniak, 6th with 114.2, and by Lithuania’s Vilius Sabataitis, 7th with 92.6.
The first to leave the match after shot number eight was Gaurav Rana of India, who concluded with 73.6 points.
Following Italy on the team’s podium, Chernousov, Evgeniu Borovoi and Anton Zanin of the Russian Federation finished 2nd, while Rana, Hemendra Kushwah and Arjun Das of India placed 3rd.
For the 10m Air Pistol Men Junior complete results click here.
10m Air Pistol Women Junior
2015 ISSF World Cup Final Silver medallist Anna Korakaki of Greece claimed the top of the Air Pistol podium at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl, where day 2 just got in the books.
Korakaki, a World Cup Bronze medallist at last year’s stage in Fort Benning (USA), built a comfortable lead in the second half of the match, distancing herself from India’s Yashaswini Singh Deswal, who eventually finished with the Silver medal around her neck. Korakaki final score was 200.6 points, 2.9 more than Deswal’s 197.7.
Germany’s Michelle Skeries completed the podium in 3rd place, finishing with 176.2 points and securing Germany’s second medal of the day. 4th with 153.2 points placed Boglarka Forrasi of Hungary, followed by Margarita Lomova, Silver medallist at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in this event, concluded 5th with 135.3 points.
France’s Kateline Nicolas finished 6th with 112.3 points, while another India’s shooter, Malaika Goel, placed 7th with 88.9 points, and Germany’s Teresa Gross placed 8th with 70.9.
Germany’s Gross, Skeries and Susanne Ross pocketed the team Gold medal, followed by Silver medallists Goel, Deswal and Gauri Sheoran of India; and by Russian Federation’s Lomova, Natalia Ordina and Irina Serebryanskya, who finished 3rd.
For the 10m Air Pistol Women Junior complete results click here.
For the photo gallery of the day click here.
The ISSF Junior World Cup in Suhl will continue tomorrow with four finals: the 50m Pistol Men Junior, scheduled at 11:30 AM (UTC+2), the 10m Air Rifle Men Junior, taking place at 1:00 PM, the 10m Air Rifle Women Junior, scheduled at 2:30 PM, and the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men Junior, taking place at 4:00 PM.
News and updates will be available on the ISSF official website and on its social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Weibo. While highlights of all the finals will be available on YouTube and Youku.