Rio 2016 | USA's Virginia Thrasher wins first gold of Rio Olympics
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Virginia Thrasher of USA won the gold medal in the women’s 10m air rifle event with a score of 208.4. Du Li, who created an Olympic record in qualification, won the silver, while Yi Siling got the bronze. Earlier, India’s Ayonika Paul and Apurvi Chandela were knocked out in the qualifying round.
The fight between Virginia Thrasher and China's Du Li went down to the last shot. 19-year-old Thrasher, who held a .6 lead over the Chinese shooter before the last shot, hit a 10.4 in the final shot to secure the first gold of the Olympics. Thrasher finished with 208.4, 1.4 points ahead of Du Li, who took the second place. Defending champion Yi Siling took the bronze medal in the event with a score of 185.4. Â
In the qualification round earlier, China’s Du Li created a new Olympic record to finish on top of the standings with a score of 402.7 (104.5, 106, 104.8, 105.4). Barbara Engleder of Germany finished second, while Iran’s Elaheh Ahmadi, and Russia’s Daria Vdovina took the third and fourth spots respectively. USA’s Sarah Scherer and Virginia Thrasher took the fifth and the sixth spot, while Snježana Pejčić of Croatia and defending champion Yi Siling finished eighth to make it to the finals.
On the other hand, India had a very disappointing performance at the shooting range. Both the Indian shooters failed to hit the high 10s throughout the qualification round and they finished outside the top-30 shooters. Apurvi Chandela finished 34th with a score of 411.7 (104.2, 102.7, 103.3, 101.4), while Ayonika Paul ended up at 47th with a score of 403 (102, 104.5, 102.5, 94).
