Three cheers for German Beer

Germany’s Jolyn Beer fought off stiff competition in women’s 50m rifle 3 position to clinch gold in World Cup Final at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range on Saturday.

With 459.9 points, the 23-year-old annexed her first Final title, beating the experienced Croat Snjezana Pejcic (457.5) and China’s Zhang Yiwen (448.2).

In fact, Pejcic had finished on top at the end of both the kneeling and the prone position. However, Beer prevailed in crucial moments of the match. She shot 10.9 on shot 43 to turn the tables around and with 0.9 lead over the Croat took the first position, with just one shot to left to fire.

While Beers signed off with 10.8 to claim the trophy in style, Pejcic concluded with 9.3 to contend with silver. Before that, Pejcic had beaten 21-year-old Yiwen in a shoot-off for the bronze medal position.

“The last year was great for me. This season I shot even a little bit better. It feels great to win this trophy, I wondered about it last night and now I can’t believe it,” said Beer.

By the end of the year I’ll shoot in some selection matches for next year’s European Championships. I’ll also shoot in a couple of World Cup stages, to prepare for the World Championship in Changwon.”

In the women’s trap final later in the day, Italy’s Alessia Iezzi tipped Spain’s Fatima Galvez, a former World Cup champion, in the shoot-off to claim the brightest medal and her first World Cup Final title. Both Iezzi and Galvez had finished on 41 in the final 10 shot series for the gold medal. However, Galvez blinked first after fighting gallantly to reach for medal contention, losing 1-2, to settle for silver.

Lebanon’s Ray Bassil (32) took the bronze after leading in the first five series of five shots, during which she had missed just once. However, she missing seven of the following 15 to end up bowing out after her 40th shot.

The quality field included Rio 2016 gold medalist Catherine Skinner of Australia, and two-time Olympic medalist Zuzana Rehak Stefecekova of Slovakia, who finished fifth and sixth in the six-women final.