Shooting Day 5 Review: Historical breakthroughs still to wait
(BEIJING, August 13) — If they had won a gold medal, both would have made history – the first ever Olympic gold for Mongolia or the first winner of three consecutive Olympic gold medals from the same shooting event.
However, Gundegmaa Otryad of Mongolia and Maria Grozdeva of Bulgaria were both unable to win gold. The Mongolian shooter who topped the qualification round with 590 in the Women’s 25m Pistol, was a strong chance for gold. She had a three-point lead over German shooter Dorjsuren Munkhbayar, who came in second.
Maria Grozdeva, two-time Olympic gold medalist in the event at Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004, finished qualification in fifth with 583.
The pressure started to take its toll on the 30-year-old Otryad, who was sixth at both Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004. Eventual gold medalist Chen Ying of China cut Otryad’s lead down bullet by bullet and finally scooped up the lead when a pistol malfunction halted the Mongolian’s shooting.
Otryad gained her first Shooting silver medal and Mongolia’s first medal of the 2008 Games with a final score of 792.2.
“Although it’s a pity that I didn’t get the gold medal I am still very happy,” said Otryad after winning the silver medal.
Grozdeva finished the final ranked fifth with 786.6. She had the chance to be the first winner of three consecutive Olympic gold medals from the same shooting event. However, she never threatened today’s medalists and regretted the mistakes that she made during precision shooting.
