France's Mathilde Lamolle, 17, took over the Women's Junior 25m Pistol event at the ISSF World Championship in Granada, Spain. She beat China's Lin Yuemei, 20, by 7-1 in the gold medal match. Bulgaria's Lidia Nencheva, 18, took the bronze as she overcame Jeong Yeonse, 18, of the Republic of Korea (7-5). (See full results).
Lamolle entered the decisive duel as she came out of the semifinal with 15 hits, in a tie for first place with Lin. Lamolle started off the final on the right foot, as she easily gained the lead in the first round (3-1); she was then stuck in a tie (1-1), but eventually performed two brilliant series (4-3, 3-2) which gave her the gold.
This was the first international medal for Lamolle. French fans on the stands cheered out loud to celebrate her success; Team France members were with her as she left the Final Hall crying, overwhelmed with emotion. She did not want to talk.
Silver medallist Lin reached the highest achievement in her career. Before today, the best she could do was third position (she did it twice at the Asian Championships in 2012).
Nencheva took the bronze following a very close contest with Jeong. Nencheva began perfectly, gaining 4 points in the first two rounds. After a tie in third round, Jeong came back, as she gained four points and brought Nencheva to the score of 5-5. Finally, Nencheva took advantage of Jeong's “zero” in the last round and secured the bronze.
Nencheva, though, was looking for the gold.
“I wasn't emotionally ready for this competition,” Nencheva said, explaining that she will need to work on her concentration by doing “more training on the psychological [aspect].”
China's Cao Lijia, 17, zeroed in the first round. She then managed to catch up with many of her contenders thanks to a consistent performance, but she ended up in fifth place and just one hit behind Nencheva and Jeong, who qualified for the bronze medal match. Cao was a Youth silver medalist at the Nanjang Asian Shooting Championships in 2012.
One of today's favorites, Poland's Agata Nowak, 18, was only sixth.
“I have no idea what happened,” Nowak said, referring to her second round where she only scored one hit. “It just happened. I don't know what went wrong.”
Nowak had won gold at the 10m Air Pistol in Nanjing, China at the latest Youth Olympic Games (YOG).
Compared to the YOG, Nowak said that she feels more pressure in Granada as there are “more athletes older than me and shooting better [than me].”
“I'm going to work hard and win the next competitions,” Nowak finally said.
Michelle Skeries of Germany was seventh with 10 hits, 3 more than Poland's Joanna Tomala, who was last.