CAIRO, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Alison Marie Weisz of the United States edged Huang Yuting of China 16-14 in a thrilling gold medal match in the women's 10m air rifle event at the world championships here on Friday.
Huang looked invincible in the ranking match, hitting 264.5 points to take the lead, 3.2 points ahead of second-placed Weisz.
However, starting from zero in the gold medal match, Weisz was the one that enjoyed advantage for more occasions, but Huang managed to catch up 4-4 and then 9-9.
Weisz squandered her 12-10 lead following two sub-10 shots and saw her 16-year-old rival one step away from victory. The American called a timeout and tied the score 14-14, before shooting for 10.6 points to beat Huang's 10.3 in the deciding shot for the gold medal.
Huang, the youngest among the Chinese shooters for the worlds, won a silver and her compatriot Zhang Yu took the bronze. Julia Ewa Piotrowska of Poland was in the fourth place.
The world championships is also qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, with four quota places on offer in each individual event. As one National Olympic Committee can obtain no more than one quota in any individual event, fifth-place finisher Keum Ji-hyeon also earned South Korea a berth in the Paris Games.
In the men's 10m air rifle, teenage shooters swept podium with Rudrankksh Balasaheb Patil of India on top.
In the gold medal match, Patil managed a brilliant comeback to beat Danilo Dennis Sollazzo of Italy 17-13 for his maiden world title.
Sollazzo opened strong with a 10-4 lead, but 18-year-old Patil demonstrated his resilience, leveling the score 11-11 and then 13-13, before taking four consecutive points to beat his one-year-older Italian rival.
China's Olympic silver medalist Sheng Lihao, 17, had the chance to enter the gold medal match, but was overtaken by Patil in the final shot of the ranking match, and had to settle for a bronze ahead of compatriot Yang Haoran.
Jiri Privratsky, who finished in the fifth place, also earn one Paris quota for the Czech Republic. ■
