Korea’s Kim Kyeongae, 23, won today’s 25m Pistol Women event, at the ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning, GA, USA.
The young shooter beat Zorana Arunovic of Serbia in the Gold medal match, by 7 points to 1, after passing through the semi-final with 14 hits. Bronze went to Serbia’s 1988 Olympic Bronze medallist Jasna Sekaric, who finished on the podium after beating the 2-time Olympci Champion Maria Grodzeva of Bulgaria in the Bronze medal match by 9 to 7 hits.
Today’s Gold medallist Kim had already won an ISSF World Cup medal, this year, while shooting on her home turf in Changwon, Korea, last April.
Once again, it was a young, up-and-coming shooter, to take advantage of the new ISSF final formats.
What’s changed in the 25m Pistol Women Final? Since the new rules are in place (January 2013), the way the event is conducted has changed dramatically. Semi-finals, hits and points, have been introduced, adding drama to the game.
The semi-final is a new competition phase, and precedes the medal matches.
The qualification scores are not carried forward into the semi-final, so that all the semi-finalists start from zero.
During semi-finals, the targets are set to record hits. Every time the shooter scores 10.3-points or more, it’s counted as a hit. Semi-finals consist in five series of five shots.
After the semi-finals, the best two athletes proceed to the Gold medal match. The third and the fourth ranked shooters duel in the Bronze medal match, while the fifth and the sixth shooters are eliminated.
During the medal matches, the scoring system changes from “hits” to “points”.
When a shooter scores a hit, two points are awarded. If both the shooters score a hit, one point each is awarded. The first shooter who reaches seven points, wins the medal match.