The People's Republic of China finished once again atop of the podium, at the last ISSF World Cup leg of the year in Beijing, today.
The host country pocketed another Gold medal thanks to the first-time finalist Lin Piao Piao, who beat Italy's Simona Scocchetti at the Skeet Women Gold medal match with a score of 13 to 7 hits.
The 21-year old university student from Nan Chang qualified for the final phase of the competition with 71 hits out of 75 targets, and then hit 14 targets in the semi-final finishing atop of the table.
In the Gold medal match, she met Italy's 28-year old Simona Scocchetti, the 2013 World Championship Silver medallist, who had equalled the world record during today's qualification with 74 hits out of 75 targets.
The duel for the brightest medal was probably decided after the first two stations, as Scocchetti only hit 3 targets out of 8, finishing too far behind her Chinese opponent.
Lin Piao Piao, on the other side, kept on shooting consistently, hit 13 targets, and ended up on the first step of the podium to receive her first international medal ever.
“I feel very excited!” The young Chinese shooter said after the final match. “I was really nervous going into the semi-final, and then facing Scocchetti in the Gold medal match. But then I tried to regroup, and I became more confident as she missed all those targets in the first part of the round.”
“I want to thank my family and my friends, their support made me stronger!” Lin concluded, saluting the Chinese supporters who crowded Beijing's Olympic Clay Target Field, today.
Following the two Gold medal contenders, today's Bronze finished in the hands of Korea's Kim Minji, 25, ranked 75th in the world. The athlete from Seoul hit 12 targets in the semi-final, and after loosing a shoot-off against Scocchetti, she beat Russia's Anastasia Krakhmaleva (26) in the Bronze medal match 15 to 10 hits.
Gerogia's Nataliya Panas (22) finished in fifth place with 11 hits in the semi-final, while USA's Caitlin Conner closed the match in sixth place with 10 hits.