After an exciting and thrilling final round, Iranian athlete Najmeh Khedmati pocketed the 10m Air Rifle Women Gold medal at the Asia Olympic Qualifying Competition in New Delhi (IND).
Khedmati battled for the whole match with her two Indian opponents, Ayonika Paul and Pooja Ghatkar, claiming the lead only after her 18th shot, when Ghatkar hit a disappointing 8.8 and slipped from the 1st to the 3rd place, sealing her performance with 184.5 final points and with the Bronze medal.
In the last series, then, Ayonika Paul closed the gap with Khedmati, tying their scores at 205.9 and forcing a tie-breaking shoot-off for the 1st place. There, the Indian shooter only marked a 9.9, while Khedmati hit a 10.1, finally claiming the Gold medal. The first one for the Islamic Republic of Iran in this competition.
As Khedmati earned an Olympic quota during last year’s ISSF World Cup, the first slot available went to Paul, but as India already collected one with Apurvi Chandela, also during last year's World Cup, the second one went to Republic of Korea's Lee Eunseo, 4th with 163.1 points.
5th with the final score of 143.5 points placed Singapore’s Ho Xiu Yi, followed in 6th by Mongolia’s Narantuya Chuluunbadrakh with 122.4. Two more Singaporean athletes finished at the two bottom positions of the final: Xiang Wei Jasmine Ser placed 7th with 101.6, and Martina Lindsay Veloso placed 8th with 80.8.
Medal standings after 7 out of 15 events
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | JPN |
3 | 1 | 4 | |
| 2 | KOR |
1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| 3 | IND |
1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| 4 | ISP |
1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 5 | IRI |
1 | 1 | ||
| 6 | TPE |
2 | 2 | ||
| 7 | CHN |
1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 7 | PRK |
1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 9 | THA |
1 | 1 | ||
| 7 | 7 | 7 | 21 |
The competition will continue tomorrow with the 10m Air Rifle Men final scheduled at 1:30 PM (UTC+5:30), followed by the Double Trap Men final at 3:30 PM.
Live updates will be available online on the ISSF website and on the ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Sina Weibo.