An action-packed day at the Changwon International Shooting Range opened with the 10m Air Pistol Women final, where Viktoria Chaika of Belarus pocketed the gold medal, overtaking People’s Republic of China’s Ji Xiaojing at the very last shot.
After leading for 23 of the 24 shots, in fact, the 29-year-old Chinese shooter nailed a bad series of six consecutive shots inside the 9th ring, progressively losing the gap that she previously built and slipping down in 2nd place at the decisive moment.
On the other hand, Chaika, who was standing 5.7 points behind Ji after four series, fired an impressive streak of good shots, including three 10.8 and two 10.7, sealing the win with a 10.8-10.1 combination that sent her on the highest step of the podium with 241.7 points, 0.5 more than Ji’s 241.2.
The Belarusian five-time Olympian won the seventh World Cup medal of her outstanding career.
The Bronze medal was awarded to Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic (31) who finished with 219.2 points and stepped back on the World Cup podium three years after the last time, while her 28-year-old teammate Bobana Momcilovic Velickovic, instead, missed the podium by 2.1 points, finishing in 4th position and scoring 196.5 points.
A second Chinese shooter — first-time World Cup participant Xiong Yaxuan (21) — placed 5th with 176.4 points.
Home favorite Kim Jangmi followed in 6th place, going down two positions in a decisive moment: the 25-year-old shooter of the Republic of Korea fired a disappointing 9.7-9.5 combo in the fifth series, finishing with 157.8 points and missing what would have been the first medal of the competition for the host country.
Two Olympic silver medalist placed in the bottom positions, as France’s 31-year-old Celine Goberville — who placed 2nd at London 2012 in this event — concluded in 7th place with 136.0 points, while Russian Federation’s 21-year-old Vitalina Batsarashkina — who climbed on the second step of the podium at Rio 2016 — took 8th place with 116.5, losing a shoot-off against her French rival.
The ISSF World Cup Stage 2 in Changwon will continue this afternoon with the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final, scheduled at 1:15 pm (UTC+9:00), and the Trap Mixed Team final, taking place at 4:30 pm.
The matches will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.