Serbia's Zorana Arunovic won a tough 10m Air Rifle Women final, at the ISSF World Cup in Gabala, today, pocketing another gold in Azerbaijan after her victory at the first European Games in Baku, earlier this year.
Arunovic shot consistently through the final, taking advantage of some bad shots of her opponents, to climb the scoreboard up to the lead with 199.0 points.
Winning the gold, she disappointed China's 2014 junior world champion Lin Yuemei (21), who finished in second place with 197.7 points, and Tien Chia Chen of Chinese Taipei (31), third with 177.7.
Arunovic's was a bitter-sweet victory, though. The 28-year old Serbian shooter – a 2010 World Champion who made it into two finals at the 2012 Olympic Games – did not manage to secure a Rio 2016 Olympic quota, which was her main aim here in Gabala.
“This is season has been a mess, and it has been way too long for me. This morning when I woke up I thought: let's finish this and let's take a break.”
“I am really happy with today's gold, I gave the real best of myself. During the final, the results haven't been so high. But it looks like that whenever somebody else did I mistake, I didn't, so I managed to climb up.”
“I was really disappointed with my results in the 25m Pistol event.” Arunoivc said. She placed in 48th at the 25m Pistol Women event four days ago, on the 10th of August.
“My teammates already have two Rio 2016 quotas in the air pistol event, and I am out of quota place, so I was focusing more on the 25-meter event, hoping to get one there. But I did really really bad. So I tried to make at least a good impression at today's event,” added the Serbian shooter.
Her teammates Jasna Sekaric and Bobana Velickovic had indeed already secured the maximum number of two Olympic quotas allowed per nation in the 10m Air Pistol Women event, before her victory at the European Games, and Gabala's was her very last chance to grab an Olympic spot on the 25m pistol event. The Olympic qualification period for small-bore events ends today, for European athletes.
A former Olympic champions made it to Rio, instead.
The 1996 Olympic champ Olga Kousnetsova (46) nailed the fourth place with 156.0 points, enough to win the first of the three Olympic quotas up for grabs at todays final, as Serbia, China and Chinese Taipei have already filled in their spots. The second Olympic berth went France's Celine Goberville, seventh with 96.6 points, and to Klaisuban Pim On of Thailand, who placed 11th – out of the final – with 382 points in the qualifications.