In the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women final at the ISSF World Cup Stage 3 in Fort Benning (USA), a dominant performance delivered the gold medal to Croatia’s 35-year-old shooter Snjezana Pejcic.
Finishing 5.0 points ahead of her closest rival, Pejcic secured the sixth World Cup gold of her career in the 3 Positions event, taking the lead at the end of the prone position and sailing away with two fantastic standing 5-shot series, where he scored 50.1 and 50.7 points. As her advantage increased up to 7.2 points after two more shots, Pejcic relaxed a little bit, missing the 10th ring with her final three shots and closing the match with 460.0.
Two Chinese shooters placed on the second and third step of the podium: first-time final participant Jiang Ting (24) — who briefly led the match at the end of the kneeling position — won silver and scored 455.0, while 18-year-old Wang Zeru — gold medalist in this event at last month’s ISSF World Cup in Changwon (KOR) — took bronze with 440.4.
The young Chinese talent preceded the current leader of the World Ranking in this event — Germany’s 23-year-old Jolyn Beer — and Serbia’s 31-year-old Andrea Arsovic, who respectively finished in 4th and 5th position.
Beer, who also won the ISSF crystal trophy at last year’s World Cup Final in New Delhi (IND), closed her final with 432.1 points, while Arsovic — who took gold at the World Cup in Fort Benning five years ago — signed off with 420.9.
At the 40th-shot mark, the first two shooters eliminated from the final were United States’ 26-year-old Sarah Beard and Germany’s first-time finalist Isabella Straub (26). The American shooter took 7th place on her home turf, scoring 397.3 points, while Straub closed in 8th position with 394.4.
One shot later, they were followed by the third Chinese finalist — 31-year-old Wan Xiangyan — who placed 6th with 408.4 points.
The ISSF World Cup Stage 3 in Fort Benning will conclude tomorrow with the two last final matches: the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team, taking place at 10:45 am (UTC-4:00), and the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team, scheduled at 1:45 pm.
The matches will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results, 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.