ISSF

Published on 11 Apr 2009

10m Air Rifle Women – China secured gold and silver at the last shot

issf-logo
Marco Dalla Dea

Last shot decided the medals when the top three shooters tied after the ninth shot, at the 10m air rifle women event. The Korean athlete LEE missed her chance to win her first gold medal in front of the home supporters right, while People’s Republic of China displayed again its strength in rifle events.

Korean shooter LEE Da Hye turned out to be unlucky at today’s 10m Air Rifle Women event, at the ISSF World Cup in rifle and pistol events in Changwon, Korea.
Shooting in front of her home spectators, the 21-year old rifle shooter LEE, a new face from Korea, lost the gold medal on her last competition shot. Qualified in second with a score of 398 points, the local hero climbed in the lead after a few shots, and kept the place right to the end, fighting neck and neck against her Chinese opponents Jieqiong XIE and YIN Wen.

The three shooters tied in the lead after the 9th competition shot, so that the 10th and last final shot turned into a shoot-off for gold. Pressure probably tricked the young LEE, when she fired a disappointing 9.5 that pulled her out of the lead to land in third place with a total score of 499.7 points (398+101.7).

The 26-year old Chinese shooter YIN Wen took advantage of LEE’s defiance and to move in first place with a shot of 10.4 points, grabbing the gold medal with a total score of 500.6 points (396+104.6). YIN is known to be an expert 50m rife three positions shooter, and she seldom competes in the 10m air rifle event. But she makes an exception for the shooting range of Changwon, where she had already won two world cup medals in this event in 2003 and 2005.

YIN’s teammate, 20-year old XIE Jieqiong of China, secured silver with a total score of 500.5 points (398+102.5) by shooting a last shot of 10.3 points. Her placement on the podium next to her teammate YIN highlighted once more the overall excellent performance of the Chinese team, which entered three shooters into the final and placed two of them on the podium.

The second Korean finalist, PARK Eun Gyeong, finished in fifth place with 497.9 points (396+101.9), while the 2007 Pan American Games silver medallist Amy SOWASH of the United States of America placed in sixth with 497.2 points (395+102.2) after coming back form the eight place she had on the start list.