China bags eight golds at ISSF Bhopal World Cup

NEW DELHI -- China's Zhang Jueming beat two Olympic champions en route to winning his first World Cup title in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event as the ISSF World Cup in Bhopal, India, concluded on Sunday.

Zhang Qiongyue was victorious in the women's 50m rifle 3 positions, contributing to China's dominating position on the medal tally with eight gold, two silver and two bronze medals from 10 events. India and Germany were second and third, each with one gold.

Zhang Jueming and his teammate Zhang Zhihao found themselves in a tough group in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol ranking match alongside Rio Olympic champion Christian Reitz of Germany and Tokyo Olympic champion Jean Quiquampoix of France.

Zhang Jueming demonstrated great form, missing only one shot to secure a place in the medal match, while Reitz took advantage of Quiquampoix's two-hit final series to edge him out by 17 hits to 16.

The other ranking match saw Liu Yangpan of China take the first position ahead of World Championships silver medalist Clement Bessaguet of France, who survived four rounds of the shoot-off against Oliver Geis of Germany to book his place.

However, Liu had to settle for fourth place after four consecutive series of three hits while Zhang and Bessaguet went head-to-head in the leading position. After Reitz was ruled out for a bronze, Zhang and Bessaguet tied at 30 hits before the final series, in which Zhang hit a perfect five out of five to Bessaguet's four for the gold medal.

19-year-old Zhang Qiongyue topped the qualification of the women's 50m rifle 3 positions with 594 points and the ranking match with 414.7, 3.4 points ahead of second-placed Aneta Brabcova of the Czech Republic. Sift Kaur Samra added a bronze for the hosts with 403.9.

Brabcova gained the upper hand in the gold medal match first, but Zhang managed to tie the score 3-3 before she suddenly broke away with the scores tied at 8-8 with four winning shots in a row for the gold medal 16-8.

The next leg of the ISSF World Cup for rifle and pistol events will move to Lima, Peru in April.