Ukraine's Olena Kostevych claimed her first 25m Pistol World title today, while competing in the 52nd ISSF World Championship in Changwon, Republic of Korea.
The 2004 air pistol Olympic Champion won a spine-chilling final, after a head and head duel against Russia’s Vitalina Batsarashkina.
Batsarashkina led the whole match, managing a thin advantage on Korevych right to the second-last series, when the Ukrainian athlete tied her at 35 hits. In the last series, both athletes scored two hits, ending up the final with an equal score of 37 hits.
A shoot-off series was not enough to decide the winner. Both athletes shot 4 hits, and they had to keep on shooting in a second shoot-off series. But, once again, they both hit 4 targets, entering a third shoot-off for gold.
But the breathtaking was not over yet. Batsarashkina hit two target, while Kostevych experienced a malfunction and had to shoot again. Then, with 3 clear hits, she finally beat her Russian opponents, winning the title with a score of 37+4+4+3 hits.
Batsarashkina - who had won the Air Pistol Mixed Team title along with her teammate Artem Chernousov six days ago - claimed silver with 37+4+4+2 hits.
“I am extremely happy, this has been an epic final.” Kostevych said.
“When I had that malfunction, I knew exactly where I was, I knew how many hits I had to score to win the match, and I did it. I did my job.”
“I want to dedicate this title to my husband and my daughter.”
“I have secured a quota for Tokyo, but this doesn’t mean it’s time to relax. I will continue training for the next competitions.”
The bronze medal went to Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp, who scored 31 hits. The 23-year old athlete had already finished in the spotlights at the beginning of the season, as she gained a world cup silver - her first ISSF medal - in Guadalajara.
All three medallists were awarded an Olympic Quota Place for Tokyo 2020 (including Batsarashkina, who had already won a quota spot in the Mixed events).
Chinese Taipei’s Chia Chen Tien joined them in the Olympic club, as she placed in fourth claiming the last qualification spot up for grabs today, with a score of 26 hits.
Rio 2016’s Silver medalist Monika Karsh, who also went through two shoot-offs, did not make it to the top of the scoreboard today, and closed the final in 5th place with 18 hits. She was followed by the home shooter Jungeun Lee (6th with 16 hits), Qatar’s Aldana Saad Almubarak (7th with 11 hits) and Singapore’s Xiu Hong Teh (8th with 7 hits).
The People’s Republic of China, one of the protagonists of this world championship, finished atop of the Team event podium. Jiang Ranxin, Lin Yuemei and Yao Yushi scored a total of 1746 points, besting the host country, the Republic ok Korea (Lee Jungeun, Kim Minjung, Junghye Kwak), that claimed silver with 1746 points. Bronze went to Germany (Monika Karsch, Doreen Vennekamp, Michelle Skeries).