Photo: Emmons wins gold with WR performance

The top three winners

(BEIJING, April 12) -- The women's 10m air rifle final of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 ISSF World Cup has concluded at the Beijing Shooting Range Hall. Katerina Emmons, a 25-year-old veteran from the Czech Republic, won the first gold of the World Cup with a total score of 504.9 points. The silver medal went to Sonja Pfeilschifter of Germany, who outshot Du Li in her last shot for a total score of 502.4pts. Du Li, with 502.2, had to settle for the third place.

Emmons and Du finished in the top two qualification places with identical scores of 399 points. In the final, however, Emmons earned perfect marks in all her shots. Du Li, for her part, scored 9 points twice in the second and eighth shots. With her impressive performance Emmons finally won the first gold of the tournament, in addition to tying the world record of 504.9 set by Du Li in June 2003.

Katerina Emmons

Du was second after nine shots and scored 10.3 points in the last shot, which meant that Pfeilschifter, then third, would have to score more than 10.6 in her last shot to overtake Du for the silver. In the end, Pfeilschifter, the last to pull the trigger, managed to score 10.8 for a total score of 502.4 to take the silver. She was followed by Du in third by a narrow margin of 0.2 points.

Olga Dovgun of Kazakhstan, who had been third in the qualification round, ended fifth with 501.0 after Lionbov Galkina of Russia with 501.2.

Natallia Kalnysh of Ukraine, Eva Friedel of Germany and Oiga Desyatsakaya of Russia came in sixth to eighth, with 499.8, 499.5 and 498.3 respectively.

All eight finalists will participate in the Olympic Games in August. Judging by the fierce competition, although China's Du Li currently ranks as the world No. 1 in this event, she and her teammates will meet real challenges from their international counterparts who boast great technical and mental strength.