Women shooters set final Olympic records, claim gold

Du Li set an Olympic final mark of 690.3 points in winning the Women's 50m Rifle Three Positions competition, despite getting off to a bad start with an 8.7 first shot.

She is the 11th athlete and the third woman to win two separate Olympic Shooting events, having also won the 10m Air Rifle at Athens 2004. Renata Mauer-Rozanska of Ploland was the last athlete to achieve this at Sydney 2000.

Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic, who had upstaged Du in claiming the first gold of the Beijing Games in the 10m Air Rifle, took the silver medal with a final tally of 687.7, while Eglis Yaima Cruz of Cuba won bronze with a score of 687.6.

Germany's Sonja Pfeilschifter, ranked No. 1 in the world, finished 17th in the qualification and failed to make it into the final.

In the Women's Skeet final, held amidst a downpour, the crowd watched three separate shoot-offs in the final for the medal and fourth places.

Despite challenges posed by the weather, three shooters tied for first place, with Chiara Cainero of Italy, Kimberly Rhode of the United States and Christine Brinker of Germany all setting a final Olympic record with 93 hits.

Cainero won the shoot-off to take her first Olympic gold in this event.

Rhode, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in Double Trap, claimed the silver, winning the shoot-off (+2/2) over Brinker (+1/2). The bronze was Brinker's first Olympic medal.

Sutiya Jiewchaloemmit of Thailand, at 22, the youngest finalist, finished fifth, while Wei Ning of China, the Athens 2004 silver medalist, finished sixth with 91 hits.

Event favorites Svetlana Demina of Russia and Diana Igaly of Hungary (defending gold medalist) finished 12th and 13th, respectively.

 
Source:Women shooters set final Olympic records, claim gold