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WCF WUXI
★ Awards 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women
★ MIHAJLOVIC
WINS GOLD
Serbian shooter Lidija Mihajlovic defeated
China’s Du Li in the 50m Rifle Three Positions
Women event, earning the Gold medal after
an intense duel. Mihajlovic won the round
with a total score of 689.0 points, leaving
Olympic Champion Du in second place two
points behind her, and American Olympian
Beyerle in third place. The Serbian athlete
had qualified for the final round with a score
of 586 points. Starting in third place, she
climbed all the way to the first place by shooting
103.0 points in the final, an outstanding
score that turned out to be unreachable by
domestic shooter Du and American finalist
Jemie Beyerle, who started tied in the lead
with 587 points after the qualifications. Both
finalists shot tied throughout the first part of
50M RIFLE 3 POSITIONS WOMEN
★ GOLD MIHAJLOVIC, Lidija (SRB)
14 ISSF NEWS
★ SILVER DU, Li (CHN)
the match, Du moving to the lead by a few
tenths after the first two shots, and Beyerle
returning to the lead after firing an outstanding
10.9 on her third competition shot. Things
changed during the second half of the match:
the American shooter eventually slipped due
to a disappointing 8.7-point shot, but Du Li did
not take advantage of this, scoring a 9.0 that
made her slide behind Mihajlovic. From there
on, Beyerle and Du continued dueling for the
Silver, while Mihajlovic was approaching the
Gold and taking advantage of her opponents’
mistakes. The medal standings were decided
by the very last competition shot, which
turned out to be decisive to assign the medals.
Du Li scored a 10.1, securing Silver with a
total score of 687.0 points (587+100.0), while
Beyerle finished in third place with 684 points
(597+97.4) as she fired a 7.7-point shot.
China’s Wan Xiangyan closed the match
in fourth place, with 682.7 points, followed
by Russia’s Lioubov Galkina, fifth with 682.2
points. Meanwhile, the 10m Air Rifle Women
Silver medalist Yin Wen, third Chinese finalist,
ended in sixth place with 678.4 points,
preceding India’s Sawant (seventh with 674.5
points) and Kazakhstan’s Malinoskaya (eighth
with 673.7 points).
★ BRONZE BEYERLE, Jamie (USA)
★ GOLD SALUKVADZE, Nino (GEO)
25M PISTOL WOMEN
★
★ SILVER CHEN, Ying (CHN)
OLYMPIC CHAMPIONS
FACE TO FACE
The 1988 Olympic Champion Nino Salukvadze
won the 25m Pistol Women event, obtaining
the 2009 ISSF World Cup Final Gold medal
by defeating 2008 Olympic Champion Chen
Ying, cheered by her national supporters
here in Wuxi. Georgian champion Salukvadze
built her victory during the morning’s qualifications,
entering the final round with 589
points and a solid advantage of five points
over her opponents. Salukvadze left her competitors
far behind, leaving the final with a
score of 200.5 points, a score that took her to
the highest step of the podium with a total of
789.5 points.
The Georgian shooter, Bronze medalist
at the last Olympic Games in the 10m Air
Pistol Women event, has a long history of
successes in ISSF events. Competing both
in the 10m Air Pistol and in the 25m Pistol
Women events, the 40-year old athlete possesses
8 World Cup Final Gold medals won
throughout her sport career since 1989. She
obtained her last World Cup Final title in the
25m Pistol Women event sixteen years ago,
in 1993. Winning this year’s final, she defeated
Beijing’s Olympic Champion Chen Ying,
who entered the final round in fourth place
and struggled right to the last shot to find a
spot on the podium. The battle for the Silver
medal was breathtaking for the audience,