So it was China all the way in today's pistol events. In the women's pistol, two Chinese competitors took the top two places. They were Ying Cao, who won gold with 585 points and Yan Zhu in second place with 582.
“Conditions here were better than I had expected. Not even the cool weather affected my shooting,” said a highly pleased Ying Cao after the contest.
The pistol events are decided over 25 metres. The men's centre fire pistol involves 13 rounds precision shooting and 30 rounds rapid fire. The women's event follows the same pattern as the men's, but with a small bore pistol.
Not much in it…
Pistol shooting is an extreme exercise in concentration, which at this level requires daily training with the pistol, but also a large dose of mental training.
“During the contest, you must not have any other thoughts in your mind then the front sight, claiming and squeezing the trigger correctly. A single intrusive thought while firing can mean an eight instead of a bull's-eye, which can be disastrous,” says Tomas Skarpsvärd, one of the Range Officers for the pistol events.
The best Swede in the men's centre fire pistol was Håkan Sjöberg, who set a new personal best buy four points. Håkan finished in 16th place on 582 points. The local marksman Åke Stenlund from Boden finished in the 33rd place on 568 points. There were no women from Sweden in the women's class.
Agnieszka Korejwo, Poland, was in the medals for a long time. A pause in the competition towards the end, however, spoiled things for her and she finished in 11th place.