Once again, the protagonist of the 25m Pistol Women Final has been Zhang Jingjing, 27, of the People’s Republic of China. The Chinese shooter ruled the match, at the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Munich (GER), today.
She’s the reigning world champion, and has won the first world cup stage of the season in Bangkok and finished on the second step of the podium at the following pre-Olympic test event in Rio de Janeiro. She’s the world’s #1 sport pistol shooter, and she showed it once more today, here in Munich.
Zhang seems to be shooting in a separated category. Today, she topped the semi-final’s scoreboard with 21 hits, while five other athletes battled in a shoot-off with a score of 15 hits each, six hits behind her.
In the Gold medal match, the 27-year old Chinese phenomenon met Olena Kostevych of the Ukraine, 31, a 10m Air Pistol Olympic Champion of Athens 2004 as well as a Bronze medalist of London 2012.
But Kostevych’s experience could not stop Zhang’s top scores. The Chinese finalist scored 7 points, turning out be unmatchable by her opponent, who claimed only 1, finishing in second place.
Being the current world and Asian champion, as well as the most successful world cup competitor of the season, all eyes are on Zhang, in the lead up to Rio 2016. That’s going to be her first Olympic participation, and expectations are already mounting up: less then three months to go, to the big day.
Today’s Bronze medal match saw Thailand’s Yangpainboon Naphaswan (28) beating Bulgaria’s 30-year old Antoaneta Boneva - the silver medalist of the 2015 European Games in Baku - by 7 to 3 points.
Heidi Diethelm Gerber of Switzerland (47) who had led the qualifications, finished in fifth place after the semifinal, with 13 hits (+4+3 hits in the shoot-off), while India’s Anisa Sayyed (35) took the sixth place with 13+1. Mathilde Lamolle of France (19) and Joana Castelao of Portugal (31) ended up in seventh and eighth places, with 12 and 11 hits, respectively.