Zhang secured China’s first Gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games

07.08.2016

Finals 10m Air Pistol Women

XXXI Olympic Games · Rio de Janeiro, BRA

After the three medals pocketed on day 1, the People's Republic of China finally placed a shooter on the highest step of the podium, as Zhang Mengxue ruled the 10m Air Pistol Women event and was crowned the Olympic Champion in her first Olympic appearance.

The Chinese national anthem finally resounded in the finals hall of the Olympic Shooting Centre, where 25-year-old Zhang Mengxue claimed the Gold medal in the 10m Air Pistol Women event, becoming an Olympic Champion in her very first Olympic participation.

Mengxue performed an impressive comeback, as she failed to hit the 10th ring with her first four shots and followed with four 10.2-or-plus scores. The Chinese definitely claimed the top of the table at the end of 5th series, holding a narrow lead until a perfect 10.9 on her 17th shot sealed the victory.

“I am so excited! I am still felling the competition, I am still in that mood, and winning the Olympic Gold was my goal since I was young. Now I have it.” Said the Gold medallist. “I was pretty calm during the final, actually, because the qualification was already a bit tough for me.”

“It happened to be my mother’s birthday yesterday, so this will be the best gift ever for her!” Concluded Zhang, whose final score of 199.4 points set a new Final Olympic Record.

Vitalina Batsarashkina of the Russian Federation secured the Silver medal with a solid performance, and hitting the 10th ring with 10 of her 20 shots. The 19-year-old, also competing in her first Olympic Games, concluded with 197.1 points, overtaking Greece’s Anna Korakaki with a 10.1-10.5 combo in the 8th series of the match, earning herself the 2nd place.

“I feel very good, but I still cannot understand what has happened, so that is why I am so calm right now,” stated Batsarashkina. “We’ve been preparing for a very long time. That is why I can say that I expected to be in the final.”

Korakaki, 20, went through some ups and downs during the match: she shared the lead of the final with Zhang at the end of the third series, but since then she missed the 10th ring six consecutive times, narrowly surviving the elimination. After gaining her focus back just in time, Korakaki concluded with the third best score of the match, 177.7 points, securing the first medal in Shooting in the history of Greece.

“I am extremely happy about the medal. I was afraid of finishing in fourth as it happened at the Youth Olympic Games two years ago,” said Korakaki after the medal ceremony. “Having the experience of the Youth Olympics helped me a lot. The village, the media, the spectators… I had already experienced all that in Nanjing two years ago, and I was prepared to cope with the conditions of such a big event. The Youth Olympic Games are really a great experience for

A bitter elimination deprived Mexico’s 32-year-old Alejandra Zavala Vasquez of a place on the podium, as she was eliminated after the 7th series with just a 0.2-gap separating her from Batsarashkina. Her final score was 157.1 points, and she was followed by Egypt’s Afaf Elhodhod, a 19-year-old Olympic debutant who placed in 5th position, matching the result she nailed at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing (CHN).

36-year-old Sonia Franquet of Spain placed in 6th position with 116.5 points, followed by the number 2 in this event’s World Ranking Bobana Velickovic, 26, of Serbia, who concluded with 96.4 points.

The second Russian finalist of the 10m Air Pistol Women, 28-year-old Ekaterina Korshunova was the first athlete to be eliminated and finished 8th with 73.5 points.

The semifinal of today’s second event, the Trap Women, is scheduled at 3:00 PM (UTC-3).

News and updates about the Olympic Shooting events will be available on the ISSF website and on the Federation’s social media profiles: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Weibo.