10M AIR RIFLE WOMEN
QUALIFICATION
28 JUL 2012, START TIME 08:15
Final 11:00
Let’s start from the beginning: the
first Gold medal of
the Games. Traditionally, shooting assigns the first Olympic Gold. On July 28,
the spotlights will be on the 10m Air Rifle Women event, where the very first
champion of the 2012 London Olympics will be crowned. Hundreds of media, and
millions of people, are waiting to see the first hero of the XXX Games in
action.
Who’s going to climb the highest podium
of the world? Who will turn into the icon of the first Olympic match? Hard to
guess, so let’s do some math! By the time we publish this article, the People’s
Republic of China have not announced their Olympic team yet, but it’s almost
sure that 2010 ISSF World Champion Yi Siling will participate in the Olympics.
She’s young (23), she is ranked 1st in the world in this event, and she
was the first athlete to qualify for the Games in 2010, winning an Olympic
Quota at the ISSF World Championship in Munich. Numbers seems to be on her
side: out of 15 ISSF competitions she participated in (during the last 4
years), she made it to 12 finals, finishing 9 times with a medal around her
neck. Yi turned to be the strongest shooter of 2011 by winning the ISSF World
Cup Final in Wroclaw, and he also won this year’s ISSF World Cup Stage in
Munich, finishing in second in London at the pre-Olympic test event. She’s good
and she knows it, as she admitted herself: “I am so happy with my scores, I
feel so good. I hope I make the Olympic team, I want to go London to win the
10m Air Rifle Women final. That’s the dream I have, and I can achieve it!” Who
could such defeat such a strong-minded athlete?
There are a number of contenders, first of all the
title defender, 2008 Olympic Champion Katerina Emmons
of the Czech Republic (maiden
name: Kurkova). Emmons took some time off from shooting after the last
Olympics, as she married American Olympic Champ Matt Emmons and later on gave
birth to Julia, their daughter. But during the last season she made a comeback,
recording one of the best personal scores of the last Olympic cycle of all the
ISSF 10m Air Rifle Women in the “Super 25” list. With an equaled world record
of 400 points out of 400, and an outstanding final of 105.9 points, she matched
Yi Siling, and climbed back to the World Rankings Top 3.
Facing the two top-ranked shooters, will be Croatia’s
2008 Olympic Bronze medalist Snjezana Pejcic, one
of the most consistent international shooters with 18 participations in
international ISSF events during the last Olympic cycles and four podium
placements. However, Italy’s Petra Zublasing,
who finished in the spotlights more than once in the last Olympic cycle, could
yet offer us a surprise. Or the USA’s best 10m Air Rifle Women
shooters, Jamie Lynn Gray (we
mentioned her in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women preview) and
Sarah Scherer, a
21-year old first-time Olympian who ranks 9th in the world after winning last year’s
ISSF World Cup Stage in Changwon, Korea. Undoubtedly, the 10m Air Rifle Women
event will be an open match, with a thrilling final and a new champion waiting
to be discovered.
Source - http://www.issf-sports.org/
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