ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol · Fort Benning, USA

The experienced 45-year-old shooter started for the 94th time in this event in an ISSF World Cup, claiming her 14th gold medal 25 years after the first one, dating back to Milan (ITA) in 1995.

The third competition day at the ISSF World Cup Stage 3 in Fort Benning (USA) saw Bulgaria’s 45-year-old shooter Maria Grozdeva win the 14th World Cup gold medal of her fantastic career. An impressive achievement for the veteran shooter and President of the Bulgarian Shooting Union.

Along her match, Grozdeva scored 4 hits in seven of the ten final series, battling with Serbia’s Zorana Arunovic all along the match and finally building a consistent gap in the second-to-last round, when the Serbian 31-year-old only scored 1 hit and the Bulgarian legendary shooter nailed another 4-hit series.

With three hits between the two shooters and only one series to fire, Grozdeva’s 3 hits were enough to secure the brightest medal and sign off with 35 total hits, while Arunovic closed with 32 and the silver around her neck.

The bronze was awarded to the reigning Olympic Champion — Greece’s Anna Korakaki, who lost a thrilling shoot-off against Arunovic and finished in 3rd place with 29 hits.

The Greek 22-year-old was followed by Germany’s Doreen Vennekamp (23), who missed the podium by two hits and placed 4th with 23, while her teammate Sandra Reitz signed the best World Cup placement of her career in the 25m Pistol Women event. The 33-year-old athlete, indeed, took 6th position with 15 hits, besting the 9th place she obtained in Baku (AZE) two years ago.

Between the two German shooters, three-time World Cup medalist Naphaswan Yangpaiboon (29) of Thailand took 5th place with 19 hits.

Eliminated after four rounds, Switzerland’s 49-year-old Heidi Diethelm Gerber — bronze medalist in this event at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games — took 8th place with 6 hits, compromizing her final with two consecutive 1-hit series in her first and second one.

One round later, it was People’s Republic of China’s Zhang Mengxue who left the match: the Chinese 27-year-old — Olympic Champion in the Air Pistol event at Rio 2016 — nailed the second World Cup start of her career in this event, finishing 7th with 11 hits.

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