Croatia’s Snejana Pejcic keeps on ruling the women’s 50m Rifle 3 Position event. The 2015 “ISSF Shooter of the Year” won today’s final at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, with a great score of 462.7 points, just two points shy of the current final world record.
Pejcic first completed the Kneeling section of the match in the lead with 154.8 points, and then cleared the Prone position with 312.0 points, and 4.1 points of advantage on the Estonian finalist Anzela Voronova, 47, who finished in second place with an overall score of 456.7 points after the Prone series, six points behind Pejcic.
“I had a great match, this is my best result in a while, I did not expect to shoot this good!” Pejcic said after the match.
The 33-year old shooter won also the last world cup stage in Rio de Janeiro, and closed the first stage of the season in Bangkok with a silver medal around her neck.
“Participating in three world cups, and going home with three medals, it’s something extraordinary. I will try to keep the level in the months to come, to be ready for the most important appointment of the season, in Rio.” She added.
Ranked first in the world, the Beijing 2008’s Olympic Bronze medalist and 2014 World Cup champion is definitely the favorite on the road to Rio.
“In 2008, I was more concentrated on the air rifle shooting event. But now I am definitely going for the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event. I think it’s a common path in the shooting sport community. In the last four years I have been working a lot with Guy Starik (a 4-time Olympian from Israel, ed.) and Nemanja Mirosavliev (a 5-time Olympian from Serbia, ed.) to improve my technique, and they helped me a lot to reach these results.”
“I am prepared, but I am tring not to stress myself too much with Rio. Off course that’s the focus of the season, but I want to concentrate on the daily job, in the lead up to the Games.”
In Rio, Pejcic will certainly meet Italy’s Petra Zublasing, the current world record holder, ranked seventh in the world. The 26-year old shooter finished on the third step of the podium, today, with an overall score of 446.8 points, after closing the Kneeling section of the match in second place with 153.8 points and the Prone series with 307.7 points.
Virgina Thrasher of USA, 19, competing in a final for the first time in this event, closed the match in fourth with 435.2 points, securing another positive result after her 7th finish at the 10m Air Rifle final three days ago. She was followed by another first-time finalist, Kazakhstan Yelizaveta Korol, 21, who placed in fifth with 425.5 points.
After winning a world cup bronze in Bangkok, at the beginning of the season, Zhang Binbin of the People’s Republic of China, 27, did not come close to the podium today, landing in seventh with 411.1 points.
May Elisabeth Nordahl of Norway (28), ranked 77th in the world, had never competed in a world cup final match before. Today she ended up in 8th place with a score of 399.1 points, leaving the competition at the first elimination together with Russia’s 24-year old Anna Zhukova, seventh with 400.1 points.