The 25m Pistol Women seasonal title was awarded to Republic of Korea’s 20-year-old Kim Minjung, who collected the first ISSF crystal globe of her career at the Dr. Karni Singh Shooting Range in New Delhi (IND).
Kim battled through the whole final with the current leader of the World Ranking in this event, People’s Republic of China Zhang Jingjing, who held the top position from the first to the second-to-last series, but finished tied with Kim at the end of the 10th one. There, with both shooters at 34 total hits, a shoot-off for the Gold medal was needed: the fifth and most important of the match.
In the most crucial moment of the final, Kim shot perfectly, nailing a 5-hit series and taking the Gold medal and the title, while Zhang hit 3 and finished in 2nd place. For the Chinese 28-year-old it’s the fourth World Cup Final medal after two Golds and a Bronze.
At the end of the ninth series both Kim and Zhang were tied at 30 hits with Serbia’s 30-year-old Zorana Arunovic, who then lost the following three-way shoot-off and pocketed the Bronze medal. Also for Arunovic it’s the fourth medal in this competition, the second one in this event after the Silver won in Munich (GER) in 2013.
Switzerland’s 48-year-old Heidi Diethelm Gerber finished just outside of the medal positions, taking 4th place with 24 hits, while Belarus’ 36-year-old Viktoria Chaika took 5th position, scoring 19 hits and previously surviving a shoot-off against Germany’s 21-year-old Michelle Skeries, who competed here in her first World Cup Final and left the match in 6th place with 16.
2016 Olympic and World Cup Final Gold medalist Anna Korakaki took 8th place with 9 hits after losing a shoot-off against her Chinese rival Lin Yuemei. The 21-year-old Greek shooter also had to deal with a technical malfunction that costed her a penalty of 2 hits.
At the end of the following series, 23-year-old Lin left the match in 7th position with the final score of 12 hits.
The ISSF World Cup Final in New Delhi (IND) will continue today with the 50m Pistol Men, scheduled at 2:00 pm (UTC+5:30); and the Double Trap Men, scheduled at 4:30 pm.
All finals will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel, on its official Facebook page and on the Olympic Channel.
Live results of the competition, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.