Olympic Champion Yi Siling won the 10m Air Rifle Women final, collecting the second gold medal of the day for the People’s Republic of China
After the success of Yang Haoran at this morning’s 10m Air Rifle Men event, it was another Chinese shooter who secured the brightest medal at today’s 10m Air Rifle Women final, at the ISSF World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand.
The reigning Olympic Champion Yi Siling, 26 - the current world record holder - finished atop of the podium with an unbeatable score of 207.7 points, doubling the gold meal count of the People’s Republic of China, which is strongly atop of the medal standings after two out of ten events to be conducted in Bangkok.
The Chinese athlete fought neck and neck against Austria’s Olivia Hofmann and Singapore’s Ser Xiang Wei Jasmine throughout the first part of the medal match, and then gained a safe margin of more than 2 points on her followers, clinching the Gold medal with ease.
Today’s turned out to be Yi’s seventh world cup gold medal since she started competing internationally, in 2009. Ranked second in the world, she is looking forward to Rio, where she hopes to defend her Olympic title.
“Rio 2016 is in my sights,” she said after today’s final. “I really have no secrets: I am training hard, and I am really self confident, both in the sport and in my private life. That’s why I think I can make it: I will work through the season to improve my chances of victory.”
Austria’s 23-year old Olivia Hofmann, ranked 21st in the world, secured the Silver with 205.4 points, claiming her first world cup medal at her second world cup final match in career.
Dueling for a spot on the podium, Hofmann beat Singapore’s Olympian Ser Xiang Wei Jasmine, 25, who took the Bronze with a final score of 184.6 points as she fired a disappointing 9.1 on her last shot.
India’s finalist Pooja Ghatkar, 27, at her first experience in a world cup medal match, finished in fourth place with 164.0 points, just 0.8 points far from the podium. Today’s turned out to be her best world cup result in career, after her 17th place at the 2013 ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, USA
Following the Indian shooter, Ho Xiu Yi, the 16-year old first-time participant from Singapore, resisted right to the 14th final shot before dropping out of the final in fifth place with 143.5 points, just 0.1 points behind Ghatkar.
Coming back to the international scene two years after her last match, USA’s Sarah Scherer, 25, made it to the final with 416.2 points. She was the first to be eliminated during the medal match, and secured the 8th place with 79.6 points after fighting neck and neck against the Serbian Olympian Ivana Andjusic Maksimovic, 25. Maksimovic took then the seventh place with 100.0 points after the 10th shot. Stine Nielsen, 25, from Denmark, finished in sixth place with 122.0 points after the 12th shot.
The 2016 ISSF World Cup in Bangkok (THA) - where 331 athletes from 49 countries are competing in the 10 Rifle and Pistol Olympic events from the 1st through the 9th of March - will continue tomorrow with the 50m Pistol Men and the 25m Pistol Women finals, to be conducted at 11:30 AM and 1:30 PM (UTC+7), respectively.