Published on 12 Sep 2014

Republic of Korea's Jung beat 2004 Olympic Champion Kostevych to win Air Pistol Women title

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Marco Dalla Dea

Kostevych lost the brightest medal at the second-last shot, as she fired an 8.4 shot. Serbia's Jasna Sekaric gained a Rio 2016 Quota place for her eighth Olympic Games edition: a record.

The Republic of Korea finished in the spotlights once again, at the 51st ISSF World Championship in all Shooting events in Granada, today, as 25-year old Jung Jeehae beat the 2004 Olympic Champion Olena Kostevych of Ukraine to win the 10m Air Pistol Women final.

 

Jung was not one of the favorites: she had only competed at international level twice, before, in the 2007 Asian Championship in Kuwait City (13th place), and in an ISSF World Cup stage in Sydney in 2010 (5th place).

 

In spite of her limited international experience, by scoring 197.4 points she outdid one of the most titled pistol shooters of the world, Ukraine's Olena Kostevych, 29, a 2004 Olympic Champion and a two-time Bronze medallist of the London Games.

Kostevych finished in second with 196.7 points, after firing a frustrating 8.4 shot in the last part of the match.

 

Wu Chia Ying of Chinese Taipei joined them on the podium, claiming the Bronze with 177.0 points.

 

Six Olympic Quota places were awarded at today's final. Three went to the medallists, the others to Petra Dobravech of Slovenia (4th place, 155.0 points), Sonia Franquet of Spain (6th place, 112.8 points), and Jasna Sekaric of Serbia (7th place, 94.0 points), as the fifth placed Renata Tobai Sike of Hungary (133.3 points) had already won a quota at the 25m Pistol Women final.

 

If 48-year old Sekaric will eventually compete in Rio 2016, that will be her eighth Olympic participation in a row (first 1988, last 2012).

 

The Serbian shooter already holds the record of highest number of Olympic participations among women shooter (7), together with Georgia's Nino Salukvadze, who did not win a quota place for Rio yet.

 

Sekaric's performance pulled the Serbian team upon today's team podium, with 1143 points (Jasna Sekaric, Bobana Velickovic, Zorana Arunovic). Teams' Silver went to the People's Republic of China (Guo Wenjun, Zhang Mengyuan and Zhou Qingyuan) with 1141 points, while Renata Tobai Sike's Hungary (Todai Sike, Zsofia Csonka, Adrienn Nemes) finished in third place with 1140 points.