ISSF

Published on 05 Sep 2015

European Games champ Arunovic takes women's air pistol world cup title at the last shot

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Marco Dalla Dea

The Serbian athlete won the match at the last shot, as the then scoreboard leader Korakaki of Greece fired a 8.4-point shot that pushed her down in second.

The 2010 World Champion Zorana Arunovic of Serbia (28) finished atop of the the podium at today's 10m Air Pistol Women final, during the ISSF World Cup Final held in Munich, Germany.

The Serbian athlete, coming from a victory at the European Games in Baku and wearing a world cup stage gold claimed in Gabala last August, had never won a world cup title, before.

 

Arunovic scored 198.5 points, beating today's silver medallist Anna Korakaki of Greece (19) at the last shot.

Korakai was leading the match with over one point of advantage on Arunovic, when she fired a frustrating 8.4-point last shot, sliding down in second place with a total score of 198.3 points and giving a chance to the Serbian finalist to move up into the lead,.

 

“I am really happy that I managed to get a gold which I did not expect. I basically won it at the last shot, and I did not even realize it. I understood I had won just a few second after the last shot, as the photographers run to me.” Arunovic said after the match.

 

Indeed, she looked surprised, right after the last shot. Closing her final match with a 9.4, she wouldn't expect to overtake Korakaki.

 

“It has been an exciting match. And I had a bit of luck as well, today.” Arunovic commented. “I started off the round well, but then we all felt the pressure of the competition and our results were a little bit lower than the normal average. But luckily what I shot was enough to secure the cup.”

 

“It has been an hard season,” she added. “I have been training and competing without any serious break for 365 days, and now I need to cool down and rest before starting the preparation for 2016.”

Today's Bronze went to Liubov Yaskevich (30), the Russian shooter who had won the first world cup stage of the season held in Changwon (KOR), last March. She scored 178.9 points, today, securing her first world cup final medal after a head to head duel against the second Serbian finalist, 25-year old Bobana Velickovic, who took the fourth place with 157.7 points.