China’s WU Yan won the 25m Pistol Women final at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea. The 30-year old Chinese athlete shot gold with a total score of 790.5 points (586+204.5), taking over the Kazakh Yuliya BONDAREVA, who had started the final on the lead after the qualifications.
WU had only competed once in the frame of the ISSF World Cup Series in 2003, when she had finished in fourth at a world cup stage held here in Changwon.
Silver went to Yuliya BONDAREVA of Kazakhstan. The two times Olympian had shot a good qualification of 589 points, finishing in first on the final’s start list, but then she struggled in the four final series, sliding in second with a total score of 788.9 points (589+199.9).
Bronze was secured by the 27-year old German shooter Stefanie THURMANN, who cried of joy right after the last shot: she had never won a world-level medal before. The German athlete shot her last award at the 2001 European Championships of Zagreb, where she had grabbed a junior Silver medal. Today she played an excellent final round and climbed up the scoreboard from the fifth place she had on the start line. She closed the final with a total of 787.2 points (582+205.2).
The 1988 Olympic Bronze medallist of Seoul, Serbia’s Jasna SEKARIC, shot the highest final of 205.7 points, but she could not go further then the 4th place due to a lower qualification score of 581 points.
Published on 11 Apr 2009
25m Pistol Women – WU brought Gold to China
Marco Dalla Dea
China secured its second gold medal today thanks to WU Yan, who made it to first place after outdoing Kazakhstan’s BONDAREVA throughout the four final series. Stefanie THURMAN won her first world-level medal ever, grabbing Germany’s first medal of the year.
