The People’s Republic of China triumphed at today’s 10m Air Rifle Women final, at the ISSF World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.
After 6 out of 15 events conducted here, the Chinese team finally secured its first gold, thanks to the 25-year old rifle shooter Du Bei, and celebrated the silver medal won by Shi Mengyao, 18.
Du - a silver medalist at the 2014 Asian Championship held in Kuwait City - had qualified for the final match with 417.5 points, and climbed up the scoreboard with 208.6 points, finishing atop of the eight-finalist pack with 3 tenths of a points of margin on her teammate Shi.
The 18-year old silver medalist scored 208.3 points, establishing a new junior final world record, shuttering the 207.9 record set by Iran’s Najmeh Khedmati at the 2014 Asian Games. Athletes in the junior class can indeed score junior records also while competing in senior events, according to the ISSF Rules. Shi also recorded her best world cup finish in career today, following the bronze medal she had won at the last world cup stage, in Munich.
Bronze went to Park Hae Mi of the Republic of Korea, a 26-year old first-time world cup finalist, who scored 185.1 points to finish ahead of the 2014 Asian Champion, India’s 27-year old Pooka Ghatkar, fourth today with 164.7 points.
The third Chinese finalist, the current world record holder Chen Dongqi, 27, took the fifth place with 143.0 points, surviving the third elimination that saw Denmark’s Stine Nielsen (25) leaving the match in sixth place with 122.3 points.
Yulia Karimova of the Russian Federation, 22, and London 2012 Silver medalist Ivana Andusic Maksimovic, 26, left the match in seventh and eighth place, with 102.0 and 80.9 points, respectively.
Thanks to Du’s and Shi’s medals, and to the silver won by their teammate Zhang Bowen at this morning’s 50m Pistol Men event, the People’s Republic of China bounced atop of the medal standings of the ISSF World Cup in Baku within a couple of hours, with one gold and two silver medals, ahead of the Republic of Korea, second with 1 gold and two bronzes.
The ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Baku, which sees 640 athletes from 80 nations competing from the 20th through the 29th of June, will continue tomorrow with three medal events.
Day-4 will be opened by the men’s 10m Air Pistol at 11.30 AM (GMT+4), and will continue with the women’s 25m Pistol final at 1.30 PM. The Double Trap Men semi-final and medal matches will close the competition day at 4.15 PM.