By sportswriter Shen Nan
BANGKOK, Aug. 10 (Xinhua) — The opening day of the inaugural shooting competition in the Universiade history saw world-class marks from both events of men’s 50m pistol and women’s 10m air pistol here on Friday.
Leonid Ekimov from Russia collected a personal best of 571 points in the qualification round of the men’s 50m pistol, which would secure him a top three spot in an International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup meet. The score made the 19-year-old twice European title winner of the event a hot medal contender at the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
“This is my personal record, but not a surprise. I just take it as ordinary,” said Ekimov, a sports-majored student in Pomorskiy State University of Russia. “I always think I can do better.”
“I haven’t thought about the Olympics next year yet, but I really want to be there,” he added, wrapping a national flag around him after winning the gold medal with a total of 664.3 points despite of a modest 93.3 points in the final round.
Ukraine’s Ivan Rybovalov took the silver medal with a total score of 654.6 points followed by Lee Dae Myung from South Korea with 647.8 points.
Earlier, the final of the women’s 10m air pistol, the first-ever shooting final in the Universiade history, saw also world-class scores with all finalists’ qualification scores higher than 384 points out of 40 shots.
Art-majored Sarao Harveen of India obtained 388 points in the qualification round and 98.1 points in the 10-shot final, winning by a total of 486.1 points.
“My personal best qualification result is 390 points which was achieved in the national championships last year,” said Harveen.
Olena Kostevych of Ukraine took the silver medal with a total score of 483.5 points, followed by Russia’s Kira Mozgalova with 481.8 points.
“I was eighth in the World Cup in the United States and the ninth in Sydney,” said Harveen, a junior in college. “I took this competition a preparation for the Beijing Olympics. However, I still need to win a place in the squad in the national championships this year.”
Russia won the first-ever Universiade shooting gold medal in the men’s 50m pistol team event with a total of 1,658 points while Ukraine took the team title of the women’s 10m air pistol with 1,153 points.
The four-day competition of shooting, first introduced into the Universiade program, offers 40 gold medals in 20 events. Many teams took the Universiade as a practice run for the Olympic Games in Beijing next year.