The national anthem of the People's Republic of China resounded for the second time, today, at the ISSF World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan, as Cao Lijia won the 25m Pistol Women final just one hour after the success of her teammate Mai in the 50m Pistol Men event.
The 18-year old Chinese shooter beat Russia's Vitalina Batsarashkina (18) with a net score of 7 to 1 points in the Gold medal match, after passing through the semi-final with 18 hits.
Today's was Cao's first international medal in the senior category. “This is a great birthday present. I turned 18 just one month ago, and this medal is the best thing that could happen to me.” Cao said.
“I am really happy about this Gold, it's my first international victory, and I hope I will get many more in the future. I would like to thank my coach and my team, without them this would not have happened.”
Silver medallist, Vitalina Batsarashkina (semi-final: 20 hits, final: 1 point) earned a Rio 2016 Quota place, as the People's Republic of China had already achieved the maximum number of quotas allowed per country in this event.
Cao's teammate Zhang Jingjing (26) – the reigning world champion and the world rank's #1 - claimed today's Bronze beating the London 2012 Olympic Bronze medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine (30) by 7 to 3 points.
After the semi-final, the 2013 European Champion Heidi Diethelm Gerber of Switzerland (46) took the 5th place with 13 hits. She was followed by Mongolia's 2013 Asian Champion Munkhzul Tsogbadrakh who placed in 6th with 13 hits, and secured a Rio 2016 Olympic quota for her country. The third Chinese finalist, 21-year old Lin Yuemei, followed Diethelm Gerber and Tsogbadrakh in 7th place with 11 hits, while it was Japan's Yamada Satoko who took 8th place with 10 semi-final hits.
Stay tuned on www.issf-sports.org for the last medal match of the day, the men's Double Trap Final, taking place at 16.45 (GMT+5) this afternoon. The semi-final and the medal matches will be broadcasted live on the ISSF Livestream channel, at: http://www.issf-sports.org/pages/livestream.ashx