Serbian Sekaric nabs gold in women's 25-meter pistol

BEIJING, April 15 (Xinhua) -- Serbian shooter Jasna Sekaric won her country the first gold at this Good Luck Beijing ISSF World Cup in women's 25-meter pistol after a painstaking shoot-off with 784.4 points here on Wednesday.

French markswoman Stephanie Tirode, who picked up gold in women's 10-meter air pistol on Saturday, shared the same final score with the champion but 0.2 points less in the shoot-off. She thus comprised for a silver.

The bronze was earned by Mongolian shooter Munkzul Tsogbadrah with 783.4 points.

Nearly surpassed by Chinese shooter Chen Ying after the first series, Sekaric, 43, who topped in the qualification round with 585 points, performed stably through out the final round with 50.5,50.0, 49.8 and 49.1 points.

But the runner-up in 10-meter air pistol at the Sydney Olympic Games was caught up by the 33-year-old French shooter who, despite a three-point gap from her after the qualification round, appeared sharp and achieved the highest final round score of 202.4.

In the five-shot shoot-off series, Sekaric got a 10.5 in the first shot, while Tirode's score was below 10.

But Tirode, bronze medallist at the 2002 World Cup Atlanta Fort in 10-meter air pistol, followed so closely that after the fourth shot, their margin was narrowed to 0.4 points.

When it came to the breathtaking last shot, the Serbian collected a 10.4.

Tirode got a higher score of 10.6, which, however, was not high enough to topple Sekaric's position.

"Everybody can see I am very happy today as I won here especially in the Olympic venue," smiled the champion.

Admitting that she was as famous as Chinese Olympic shooting champion Wang Yifu in her hometown, the joyful Sekaric said the was trying the think it "an Olympic final today."

She was not in good shape lately and just began training for sport pistol several days ago. "I think I can have more points in the Olympics," she added.

With a daughter and a son, the athlete noted that her family gave her great support. "Now I can concentrate in preparation for the Olympics," she said.

Tirode said that this event helped her get acquainted to the environment. "It paved the way for my getting good results at the Olympics," she said.

Talking about Chinese shooters, she noted that they are under great pressure. "I hope they can do better in later competitions," said the shooter.

Chinese shooter 30-year-old Chen Ying was ranked second initially and started well in the first series with 51.3 points. But she had all her bullets aimed too high in the second and to the right in the third so as to achieve two 46.8 points, lowest among all finalists, and slipped to the sixth.

Although the world champion with half a dozen gold medals in world cups reaped a highest score in the fourth series of 51.1, it was less than enough to lift her up and the final round score, 196.0 points, was about nine points less than her normal performance.

"Her performance today is a failure," commented Wang Yifu, head coach of the Chinese shooting squad.

World Record holder Maria Grozdeva from Bulgaria, with the record at 796.7 points, got 577 points in the qualification round and ranked 18th.

Also retarded from entering the final were Chinese shooters Guo Wenjun and Fei Fengji with 577 and 576 points, 19th and 26th place.