With a record score, and a great standing position in the final, the 24-year old athlete claimed Italy's second Gold medal.
The Italian flag has been risen again, today, at the 2014 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning, GA, USA, as Petra Zublasing won the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women event.
The 24-year old Italian shooter turned out to be unbeatable, today. She qualified for the final match by setting a new world record of 591 points, and then ended up on the highest step of the podium with a final score 462.0 points in the medal match.
“It feels great. I set a new world record during the qualifications, but with the new rules that does not count in the final. You have to start from zero again, and build up the score shot after shot.” Zublasing said.
“My Standing series made the difference, during the final. I climbed back into the lead from the third place I had after the prone, and I made it to the highest step of the podium.”
The Italian shooter ranked second after the kneeling series, and then third after the prone series. But a great standing score lifted her up in first place, just 0.7 points behind the Final World Record of 462.7 points she had set at last year's ISSF World Cup Final in Munich.
“Standing is not my specialty.” Zublasing commented. “But I come from air rifle, where you compete in standing position, so I guess I've built a certain experience. I am normally a slow shooter, during the qualifications, but with the new rules you only have about 50 second per shot, during the standing series in the medal match. The pressure of the final pushes me to release the shots quicker than I normally do, but that worked fine, today.”
“This world cup stage ended up in the best way for me an Nicco (Niccolò Campriani, Petra's teammate and boyfriend who won yesterday's 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men final, ed.). We were not even supposed to compete here: the Italian team does not participate. But we had been invited to visit the White House along with the West Virginia Rifle team, so we took the chance to come, to train with our old team, and to compete. It has been a good decision, after all!”
The Silver medal went to People's Republic of China's Chang Jing, participating in her first ISSF World Cup final round here in Fort Benning. The 26-year old shooter placed in second with a final score of 458.2 points, pocketing her first ISSF medal ever in this event.
Sarah Scherer, claimed Bronze with 447.2 points, winning the first medal of USA at this world cup stage. The 23-year old rifle shooter had never won a world cup competition in this event, before.
Yulia Karimova (RUS), set a new Final World Record Junior with 413.7 points, closing the match in sixth place.