Pejcic wins women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions final by 6.8 points

segunda-feira, 22 de maio de 2017

Pejcic wins women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions final by 6.8 points

Final 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women

ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol · Munich, GER

The Croatian shooter left no chances to her opponents, collecting a safe lead through the three positions, to win her 5th world cup gold in career. Host country Germany celebrated two medals thanks to Gschwandtner and Beer.

6.8 points was the final gap separating Croatia’s Snjezana Pejcic, the winner of today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women event, from silver medalist Selina Gschwandtner of Germany, at the ISSF World Cup in Munich.

The 34-year old Croatian shooter built that huge advantage over the three positions, moving in the lead since the beginning of the final, the kneeling, and then increasing her lead over the prone and the standing positions, to win gold with 462.2 points.

Gschwandtner, 23, pocketed the silver with 455.5 points, and was joined on the podium by her teammate Jolyn Beer, 22, who claimed bronze with 444.6 points, leaving first-time finalist Rikke Maeng Ibsen of Denmark, 26, in 4th place with 432.9 points.

“Today’s competition has been interesting, considering the fact that I shot an 8 at my last shot in the qualifications. I thought: that’s it, no way to get into the final. But luckily I made it,” said Pejcic after the final match

“The final itself has been amazing. Everything came into place. At a certain point of the match, I was leading by more than 7 points. I thought: is everybody else shooting bad, or am I really shooting that good?”

The 2014 ISS World Cup champion could have reached and beaten the current world record of 464.7 points, set by Italy’s Petra Zublasing in 2015. But by closing the match with three nines (9.6, 9.7, 9.2) she finished 2.5 points away from it.

“At a certain point I figured out that I was somewhere close to the world record,” Pejcic commented. “I started thinking about it, I had the feeling it was already done, but then I nailed a couple of nines. It’s something you are not supposed to think about when you’re shooting a final, and I am a bit sad that indeed I didn’t make it.”

“After this competition I am taking some time off. I am not competing in the next world cup stage. My next aim is the European Championship, in July.”

Russian Federation’s Yulia Karimova, 23, took the 5th place with 422.5 points, followed by Italy’s Sabrina Sena, 32, 6th with 409.3 p.ts, and by Poland’s Agnieszka Nagay, 36, 7th with 399.5 p.ts, while the second Russian finalist - 25-year old Polina Khorosheva - finished in 8th with 394.7 points.