China’s Hu Jun won the 10m Air Pistol Women event, securing Gold with 486.9 points (387+99.9). The 31-year hold athlete had qualified for this year’s ISSF World Cup Final by claiming a Gold medal at the World Cup Stage in Beijing, and a Silver at the World Cup Stage in Milan.
“I am happy about this victory, even if I know that I should improve” Hu said right after the final, interviewed by a crowed of Chinese journalists “I fired a couple of bad shots, and I could have scored an higher total…” She said about her eighth and ninth final shots, a 9.4 and a 9.1.
Hu had started the final match tied to Belarus’ Viktoria Chaicka, and to her teammate Guo Wenjun, the Olympic Champion of Beijing 2008, moving then up in the lead on the last shot.
1998 World Champion Chaika, 28, shoot neck and neck with Hu right to the last shot, ending up in second place just three tenths behind her Chinese opponent, with a total score of 486.6 points (387+99.6), as she scored a poor 9.8 on her last shot.
At the same time, Beijing Olympic Champion Guo, the current World Rank’s leader, slid back in third place by firing a frustrating 8.1 on her second final shot. In spite of peaking back in tens, she could not recover from that fatal mistake, and ended up in Bronze position with 485.3 points (387+98.3).
Lee Ho Lim of Korea, twice on the podium during this year’s World Cup Season, could not make it to the podium. In spite of shooting the highest score in the final (100.9 points), the 21-year old athlete finished in fourth place four-tenths far from the Bronze medallist, paying her lower qualification score of 384 points. Following her, the 2004 Olympic Champion Olena Kostevich ended up in fifth place, scoring a total of 484.5 points (384+100.6).
Australia’s hope, Lalita Yauhleuskaya, 45,
closed the final round in fifth place with 483.4 points (383+100.4). The third
Chinese shooter, Tong Xin, 27, followed them in seventh with 479.9 points,
while the Polish finalist Miroslawa Sagun Lewandowska placed in eighth place
with 479.0 points.