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INTERVIEW SHOOTER OF THE yEAR<br />
SHOOTER OF THE yEAR 2010<br />
kIRA kLIMOVA (rus)<br />
wiTH 65 VoTeS To 59, RUSSiAN<br />
SHooTeR kiRA kliMoVA DeFeA-<br />
TeD SHoTgUN olyMPiC CHAMPioN<br />
kiM RHoDe oF USA, wiNNiNg THe<br />
“2010 SHooTeR oF THe yeAR”<br />
TiTle AwARDeD By THe SHooTiNg<br />
SPoRT PReSS. THe 28-yeAR olD<br />
PiSTol SHooTeR DiD NoT HiDe<br />
HeR SURPRiSe wHeN SHe wAS<br />
TolD SHe HAD BeeN eleCTeD.<br />
“wHy Me?” SHe ASkeD, SMiliNg.<br />
THe ANSweR? BeCAUSe oF HeR<br />
exCePTioNAl ReSUlTS iN THe<br />
yeAR oF THe 50TH iSSF woRlD<br />
CHAMPioNSHiP, AND BeCAUSe oF<br />
HeR BACkgRoUND.<br />
20 ISSF NEWS<br />
K<br />
ith 65 votes to 59, Russian shooter<br />
Kira Klimova defeated Shotgun<br />
Olympic Champion Kim Rhode of<br />
USA, winning the “2010 Shooter of the Year”<br />
title awarded by the shooting sport press.<br />
The 28-year old pistol shooter did not hide<br />
her surprise when she was told she had been<br />
elected. “Why me?” she asked, smiling. The<br />
answer? Because of her exceptional results<br />
in the year of the 50th ISSF World Championship,<br />
and because of her background. Klimova,<br />
who started shooting when she was<br />
9-years old, encouraged by her family, had<br />
never won a medal before the 2010 season.<br />
She had been competing for years in the<br />
ISSF circuit, but she had never finished on a<br />
World Cup podium, nor she had competed in<br />
a World Championship final. But something<br />
changed at the beginning of the past season.<br />
“I have been training a lot, and I finally<br />
started believing in myself,” she confessed.<br />
And good results started coming. The 2010<br />
ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, USA, was<br />
the turning point of Kira’s shooting career.<br />
There, for the first time, she made it to the<br />
podium. And she made it twice, as she won<br />
Silver both at the 10m Air Pistol as well as<br />
kLIMOVA’S<br />
FAIRy TALE<br />
at the 25m Pistol Women events. Her first<br />
ISSF medals were “like an injection of motivation”<br />
for Klimova, who arrived at the 50 th<br />
ISSF World Championship in Munich looking<br />
to earn a Quota Place. Klimova’s story continued<br />
there, when the 28-year old Russian athlete<br />
who had never won a Gold before made<br />
it to the top, finishing the 25m Pistol Women<br />
final in first place. Winning a shoot-off for the<br />
gold was the happy ending of the fairy tail<br />
of this Russian girl, who suddenly became<br />
“number one” of the world.<br />
Kira, had you ever thought you were going<br />
to be elected best shooter of the year? that<br />
you were going to obtain more votes than<br />
an Olympic multi-medallist?<br />
I had never imagined I would win such a title,<br />
I am happy about it, but I had never considered<br />
it as something that was going to happen<br />
to me.<br />
So, how did this “happen to you”? you are<br />
27-years old, and you started winning big<br />
matches this year. What about the path that<br />
brought you from moscow to the highest<br />
step of the ISSF World championship?<br />
It all started when I was only a young girl.
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