Archerfish.org

The up-and-coming Danish Junior World Champion Nielsen duelled against the German sharpshooter Pfeilschifter right to the last shot, when the experience of the home athlete turned into a winning ace.

Today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women final at the 2011 ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events turned into a duel for Gold between the youngest and the most experienced finalists, as Stine Nielsen of Denmark (20) looking here for her first ISSF World Cup medal, challenged the home shooter Sonja Pfeilschifter, a 25-time world cup winner.

The two shooters battled throughout the entire final round, exchanging positions in first and second place, divided just by a few tenths of a point.

After the ninth shot, Nielsen held the lead by 0.3 points of advantage on the following Pfeilschifter. Therefore, the 10th and last shot turned into a sort of “shoot-off” for the brightest medal.

Marking 10.6 points, it was the expert Pfeilschifetr who snitched the Gold medal at the last shot, while a 9.7 put Nielsen in second place.

The local athlete Sonja Pfeilschifter, 40, an expert Bavarian sharpshooter who feels at home on the lines of Munich’s shooting range, had qualified for the match in third with 586 points, and finished on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 687.1 points, winning her 26th ISSF World Cup gold medal.

The 2010 Junior World Champion Stine Nielsen of Denmark had made it to the final with the highest qualification score, 586 points, and one point of advantage on his followers, finishing then in second winning the Silver (her first world cup award) with an overall score of 686.5 points.

The 20-year old shooter, who started competing in the ISSF World Cup Series this year, had won an Olympic Quota Place in Fort Benning, one month ago, becoming the only shooter to win an Olympic pass at her first participation.

“It feels great to compete with Sonja Pfeilschifer: everybody knows her, she’s the best, and that puts some extra pressure in the game.” Stine said after the match.

The 24-year old Chinese shooter Wan Xiangyan of China, ranked 25th in the world, took the Bronze medal with an overall score of 682.5 points. Entering the final match with 585 qualification points, she scored 97.5 points in the final to finish on the third step of the podium. And as both Pfeilschifter and Nielsen had already qualified for the next Games, the Chinese finalist also secured an Olympic Quota for her country.

She was followed in fourth place by USA’s Jamie Beyerle, the 27-year old world rank leader, who started-off the match in second place, with a qualification score of 585 points, finishing then with a total score of 682.2 points.

Beyerle had won two ISSF World Cup stages, this year, in Sydney and Fort Benning, climbing the world ranking up to the top.

The 2007 European champion Nathalia Kalnysh of Ukraine, closed the match in fifth with 682.2 (585+97.2) points, followed by the reigning World Champion

Barbara Lechner, who ended up with 682.0 points after entering the match by passing through a shoot-off.

The second Olympic Quota Place awarded today went to Daniela Peskova of Slovakia, a 27-year old shooter who placed 22nd at the last Games in Beijing. The Slovakian finalist, who had squeezed into the final by passing through a qualification shoot-off, closed the match in seventh place with a total score of 682.0 (584+98.0) points. Following her in eighth and last place, Great Britain’s Michelle Smith, a 28-year old athlete ranked 47th in the world competing for the first time in an ISSF World Cup final round, scored a total of 680 (585+95.7) points.

The home team outscored its opponents by placing two athletes on the first and second step of the podium. Wu Liuxi secured her second Gold medal, and stands now as the most successful Rifle Women shooter of this World Cup Stage.

China’s Wu Liuxi won today’s 50m Rifle Three Positions Women Final at the ISSF World Cup stage in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Beijing. The 25-year old shooter claimed the brightest medal in front of her home crowd, on the lines of the Olympic venue where she had competed during the 2008 Games.

Wu Liuxi, ranked third in the world in this event, outscored her opponents, qualifying with 587 points and a three-point head start on the followers. Supported by the Chinese spectators, and followed by the cameras of China’s national TV station CCTV, she scored 98.2 points during the final match, finishing the round in first with 685.2 points.

Wu had won Gold also at the 10m Air Rifle Women Final held a couple of days ago, and dramatically helped the People’s Republic of China to moved atop of the overall medal standings.

Chinese fans cheered even louder when a second home finalist moved up on the podium. Wang Chengyi, the 2004 Olympic Bronze medallist of Athens, came back on an ISSF podium by winning today’s Silver medal with a total score of 683.1 (584+99.1) points. The 26-year old shooter climbed up from the third place by scoring today’s highest final score of 99.1 points, overtaking Iran’s first time finalist Elaheh Ahmadi, who closed the match in third winning Bronze with 682.9 (584+98.9) points.