China’s 20-year-old Shi Mengyao is used to compete - and win - among senior athletes, in the 10m Air Rifle event. In 2017, she nailed the Asian Championship title, two ISSF World Cup golds and a silver. Enough to say she’s not scared of competing against older athletes.
Still, here in Changwon, she competed in the junior category: this is the last year she can do so, and she took full advantage of it.
In the final, she immediately took the lead with a series of five great shots (52.7 points). She lost it only once, after the 12th shot, when India’s Elavenil Valarivan briefly overtook her by a couple of tenths of a points, but she immediately moved back in first place with a brilliant 10.9.
From there on, she managed her lead over the followers, closing the match with 250.5 points, to secure the junior world title with confidence.
Valarivan shot neck and neck with her teammate Shreya Agrawal, to eventually beg the silver medal with 249.8 points. Agrawal followed in third, collecting the bronze with 228.4 points.
The two Indian athletes stood together also atop of the Team event podium, as they won gold along with their teammate Manini Kaushik with a total tally of 1880.7 points. The score tuned out to be a new junior world record, an excellent result that proved once again the strength of the Indian team, currently ranking 2nd in the intermediate medal standings of the ISSF World Championship, second only to the host country.
The People’s Republic of China, led by the new world champion Shi, collected the silver medal with 1874.6 points (scored by Shi, Wang Suhyi and Qiaoying Zhang). Bronze went to the host country, the Republic of Korea, thanks to Kim Jiyeon, Gaeul Han and Minjung Oh, who scored 1871.9 points.
In the individual event, Sadeghian Armina from Iran closed the match in fourth place with 205.9 points, besting the 2015 Pan American Games silver medalist Fernanda Russo of Argentina, who closed the final in 5th place with 184.9 points.
Alexandra Szutko of Poland followed in 6th with 163.3 points, ahead of South Korea’s Kim Jeyeon (7th with 140.4 points) and of Ho Xiu Yi of Singapore (8th with 120.4 points).