Jiang wins women's 10m Air Pistol and Olympic quota for China, with Hungary, Republic of Korea, Vietnam also getting Paris 2024 spots
Hungary's Sara Fabian, Vietnam's Trinh Thu Vinh, and Republic of Korea's Kim Bomi earned Olympic quotas for their countries based on their finals result at the 2023 IFFS World Championships event in Baku.
Shooting
Olympic champion Jiang Ranxin shot back to the top of the podium at the 2023 ISSF World Championships, winning gold in the women's 10m Air Pistol on Thursday (17 August), live on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com. She also secured China an Olympic quota in the shooting discipline for Paris 2024.
While Jiang is a double Olympic medallist, having won gold in the 10m Air Pistol mixed team and a bronze in the individual event, the medal in Baku marked a new milestone in her career.
"I feel very happy because it's my first individual medal at a world championships," Jiang said in a post-competition interview. "I can't believe it because I did everything (so) fast."
Jiang came into medal contention after 18 shots of the final, and recorded a 10.8 to take the lead in the next stage.
She looked in danger of losing that lead as world No.1 Anna Korakaki caught up in the later stages and went into the final shots with just 0.6 points separating the two athletes. But shooting a low 8.9 to start, the Rio 2016 champion from Greece ultimately had to settle for silver.
"Every competition is different and every competition is special," Korakaki said after the final. "This is my fourth medal in a row at a world championships. I'm very honoured, I'm very happy and I'm very thankful and I would like to dedicate today's medal to my brother who didn't make it to come here today because of a major health issue so this medal goes for him."
Li Xue, who led in the first stages of the final, took the bronze to give China a sizeable lead in the medals table after the first day of competition. China's Zhang Bowen won the men's 10m Air Pistol event earlier in the day, which was also a Paris 2024 Qualifier.
Hungary, Republic of Korea, Vietnam earn Olympic berths
Four Olympic quotas were awarded in the women's final. Korakaki secured an Olympic quota for Greece at the 2022 edition of the ISSF World Championships while Li could not earn a berth since nations can only earny one quota for each discipline at these worlds, which went to her Chinese teammate Jiang for winning gold. As a result, it was Hungary, Vietnam and the Republic of Korea earning the remaining three quotas.
Fourth-place finisher Sara Fabian secured the quota for Hungary, Trinh Thu Vinh, who finished fifth, secured a quota for Vietnam while Kim Bomi took a quota for the Republic of Korea after finishing sixth in the competition.
Although these athletes obtained quotas by winning this competition National Olympic Committees (NOCs) have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes' participation at the 2024 Olympic Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Golnoush Sebghatollahi of the Islamic Republic of Iran also qualified for the final, but was unable to take part after having technical difficulties with her pistol minutes before the start of the event.