Teenager Wang Zifei claimed her first ISSF World Cup title in a week to remember in Buenos Aires, Argentina; winning the women's 10m air rifle final.
The Chinese athlete showed great work late last week by finishing fourth in the 50m rifle 3 positions final, but this time would not let a medal slip through her fingers,scoring a tremendous total of 254.1 just 0.4 off the world record held by her compatriot Huang Yuting. It is her second World Cup medal after taking silver in Baku last year in the same event.
While it was a superb result, other contenders pushed the 18-year-old to her limit, with Republic of Korea's Kwon Eunji winning her second World Cup silver with a total of 253.1 and Switzerland's Olympic bronze medallist Audrey Gogniat winning her first World Cup medal in third despite moments of jeopardy throughout the final.
In the first five shots, it was Gogniat who held the lead, but by the end of the first competition stage it was Mariia Vasileva who'd moved into first - followed by Wang, Gogniat and Kwon. The top four were separated by just 0.5 points, while a gap started to form behind which saw the American Mary Tucker and Sonam Maskar from India finish seventh and eighth.
In fact, Wang did not take the outright lead until the second elimination took place, making up some of the ground conceded in the first competition stage. In her 14 shots from the second stage, only one was below 10.5 - that being her final shot of 10.3.
Following the eliminations of Anzhelika Osmanova and India's Narmada Raju in fifth and sixth, just half a point separated the three chasing Wang. On this occasion, it was Vasileva who missed out on the medals, but only due to the brilliance of Gogniat, who had twice saved herself under pressure. In back-to-back elimination shots, Gogniat shot a maximum score of 10.9 to save herself.
There would be another 10.9 in the elimination that would determine the bronze medal, but it would not be a streak for the Swiss shooter. Instead, Kwon overturned a gap of 0.3 to secure at least silver.
It was a difficult challenge to then get to Wang, who was now 1.4 ahead. With the Chinese athlete so consistent, she managed her last two shots well to take home the crown.
Competition continues with the women's 10m air pistol and men's 25m rapid fire pistol finals tomorrow.
Results, photos and general information about this competition can be found in this
link.