The Chinese champion Wei Ning won today’s Skeet Women Final, the first shotgun competition conducted on the layouts of the Royal Artillery Barracks, the 2012 Olympics venue in London.
“I like this place, I feel confident while shooting here.” Wei Ning said, right after shooting off Slovakia’s Danka Bartekova in a sudden-death tiebreaker for the Gold medal.
The Chinese shooter entered the match in first place, with a qualification score of 72 targets, making it into the final after scoring a 25 on her last qualification round.
Shooting solidly, she only missed one clay throughout the medal match, ending up with a total score of 96 hits.
At the same time, Slovakia’s World Cup multi-medallist Danka Bartekova had climbed back by shooting a perfect final of 25 hits out of 25 clays, and finished the round with a total score of 96 hits as well.
The shoot-off awarded Wei Ning, who shot two targets to Bartekova’s one.
“It feels like I have been here before, even if it’s the first time I shoot on this layout.” The Chinese winner said right after the match.
“It’s a good feeling, going towards the Games!” She added smiling.
The Silver medal turned out to be a good result for Bartekova “I had changed the my barrels, earlier this year, so I was a bit worried about getting into the competition with new equipment. Now I know everything works fine, and I am more relaxed.” Said Slovakian shooter, who had finished in second at last year’s ISSF World Cup Final in Al Ain.
“When we first walked into the range we were worried this won’t work. But the installation is actually fine.” Bartekova commented on the venue, which is still in preparation before the Games.
“The range is not one of the easiest. You kind of “loose” the targets on station 2 and 6, when the clays fly between the net and the sky - she added - Now we know how it looks like here at the Royall Artillery Barracks and we can prepare at the best for the Games.”
The Bronze medal went to USA’s Olympic multi-medallist Kimberly Rhode, who closed the round in third place with an overall score of 95 (71+24) hits, after shooting-off Thailand’s Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit 4 to 3 hits.
The second Chinese finalist, Zhang Donglian closed the match in fifth with 94 (70+24) total hits. At the same time, the reigning Olympic Champion, Chiara Cainero of Italy, made it to the final match by outdoing 2 to 1 hits Germany’s Christine Brinker in a qualification shoot-off. But then, missing four targets in the final round (loosing two clays on station five) she closed the match in sixth place with an overall score of 91 (70+21) targets.