CAIRO, Oct. 21 (Xinhua) — China’s Miao Wanru came back from six points down to beat Norway’s Jenny Stene 17-13 for the women’s 50m rifle three positions gold at the World Championships here on Friday.
Miao, making her debut at an international event, finished top in the qualification and had a solid performance in kneeling and prone positions in the ranking match, taking the lead with 207.9 points.
However, the 22-year-old struggled in the standing position and dropped to third after three series, 1.3 points behind leader Sagen Maddalena of the U.S. and one point after second-placed Stene.
Before the final shot, Stene enjoyed a safe 0.9-point cushion ahead of Maddalena, and Miao was on the verge of elimination 0.2 points further behind. However, the American World Cup Final winner made a sub-par 9.0 in the deciding shot, while Miao took the advantage to clinch a place in the gold medal match with a 10.7.
In an equally, if not more dramatic, gold medal match, Miao was down 4-10 after making three consecutive sub-10 shots, including an awful 8.5. The debutante managed to recover her form afterward though, taking eight points in a row to turn the table around 12-10 and shared the next two points with her Norwegian rival to lead 13-11.
Stene leveled the match 13-13, only to see Miao surge ahead again with a 10.5, and the 24-year-old knew she had no chance to bring it back again when she shot first and had a disappointing 8.8. Although Miao scored only 9.6 seconds later, it was enough for her to win her maiden world title.
Stene was in tears and hugged her compatriot, bronze winner Jeanette Hegg Duestad as the medalists greeted the audience. Sagen had to settle for fourth place and Lee Eun-seo of South Korea finished fifth.
The world championships also serve as the Paris 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers, and China, Norway, the United States and South Korea were allocated the four quota places on offer.
China has won four gold medals from the seven Olympic events contested so far after the 14-day world championships started on October 12.
