Bologna: On the day 3 of the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup four World Cup champions crowned in Bologna which included Andrea Arsovic and Damir Mikec (both) of Serbia, Alejandra Zavala Vazquez of Mexico and Peter Sidi of Hungary.
10 M Air Rifle Women:
The four medal events which were conducted on day 3 of the event, saw Serbia’s Andrea Arsovic won the first match of the day, the 10m Air Rifle Women final. The 29-year old shooter scored 209.0 points, beating the 2012 Olympic Champion and Rio 2016 bronze medalist Yi Siling of the People’s Republic of China, who ended on Silver podium with 208.7 points.
Olympic Champion during the Rio 2016 Summer Games, USA’s Virginia Thrasher, finished with bronze with a score of 185.5 points.
Speaking about the win at the ISSF World final, the gold medalist Arsovic said “I am very happy that I finally won the ISSF Globe. I have been trying for a long time.” Prior to this, Arsovic has two World Cup Final silver medals (2013 & 2014) and a bronze (2015). A practicing shooter since 2000, the Serbian further added about her forgettable Olympic appearance this year, “The Olympics did not turn in the way I expected. That was really hard. I had prepared for years for that event. But when I got back home I received a lot of support from my family and the people around me. That gave me the strength to continue, and to go for another Olympic cycle. Today’s victory is also a great motivation.”
10 M Air Rifle Men:
(L-R) Vladimir MASLENNIKOV, Peter SIDI and Hossein BAGHERI at the 10m Air Rifle Men Final.(Image Credit: ISSF/Nicolo Zangirolami)
After the 10 M Air Rifle women, it was 10m Air Rifle Men final. The final saw Peter Sidi of Hungary who prevailed over all to claim the brightest medal sealing the highest podium position with a total score of 207.7 points. Just behind him with .5 points was his closest opponent the Rio 2016 Olympic Bronze medalist Vladimir Maslennikov of Russia claimed silver with 207.2 points, followed by Hossein Bagheri of Iran who secured Bronze with 186.1 points.
Speaking post the win Sidi thanked his support staff and wrote on his social media handle,” the best technik, the best guns, the best service team, the best family! Thank you Chrisitian s, Sven, Mike, Thomas, Peter, Jutta, Stephanie, Krzysztof, Daisy, Hichem, Karl Heinz…and all of You!”
10m Air Pistol Men:
(L-R) Wei PANG, Damir MIKEC and Ismail KELES at the 10m Air Pistol Men Finals (Image Credit: Nicolo Zangirolami)
Damir Mikec of Serbia who won the 2015 European Games secured the highest level of the podium with a score of 202.9 points, prevailing over the 2008 Olympic Champion and Rio 2016 Bronze medalist Pang Wei of China, who won silver with 199.7 points. Tukey’s Ismail Keles secured bronze with 178.4 points.
Speaking about the gold medal win, Mikec, a practising shooter since 1999, said, “I have been competing in six ISSF World Cup Finals since 2009, and I had never made it to the podium. Finally, this nice ISSF Globe came to me!”
Further adding about the points he scored, he said, “I has some up and downs during the final, but I tried to clear my mind, to stay focused, and to score one shot after the other, without thinking at the final result. Luckily it worked well.”
10m Air Pistol Women:
(L-R) Anna KORAKAKI, Alejandra ZAVALA VAZQUEZ and Mengxue ZHANG at the 10m Air Pistol Women Finals. (Image Credit: ISSF/Nicolo Zangirolami)
In the 10 M Air Pistol final today, Alejandra Zavala Vazquez of Mexico prevailed over others to win the 10m Air Pistol Women final in an extraordinary fashion. The 32-year old shooter claimed the brightest medal by winning a shoot-off against Rio 2016 Olympic Star Anna Korakaki of Greece, by 9.8 to 9.1.
Before shoot-off, the two athletes tied after the last shot with a score of 201.0 points (which means that 20-year old Korakaki equaled the current junior final world record), Rio 2016 Olympic champion Zhang Menxue of China won the third place with 178.4 points to be the Bronze medal winner.