Chiara Leone keeps women’s rifle 3 positions gold in Swiss hands

PARIS – Switzerland’s Chiara Leone ensured Olympic gold in the women’s 50-metre rifle three positions remained in her country’s possession, after triumphing in a roller-coaster final at the Paris Games on Aug 2.

The top five in the eight-strong field frequently exchanged places heading into the elimination round where the 26-year-old prevailed with an Olympic record tally of 464.4.

American Sagen Maddalena (463) won the silver while Chinese world champion Zhang Qiongyue (452.9) took bronze.

“I knew I could win,” said Leone, after exceeding her own goal of making the eight-strong final at the Chateauroux Shooting Centre.

“I wanted a medal. I wanted a piece of the Eiffel Tower in my hands, and winning is just... I can’t describe how I feel.”

A hexagon-shaped chunk of metal taken from the famous monument is embedded in each of the Paris Olympics medals.

Maddalena and Zhang had topped qualification on Aug 1 and were in the mix in the drama-filled final. The former reclaimed the lead after the prone section but could not hold on to it for long as the latter surged ahead after the standing segment.

The Chinese did not have the advantage for long either, and was the first of the three medallists to drop out in the elimination rounds.

Leone carried a 0.7 advantage heading into her final shot, which was an impressive 10.8.

Aware of her unassailable lead on her Olympic debut, the Swiss pumped her fists and let out a big sigh of relief.

Maddalena replied with a 10.1 and had to settle for silver.

“I don’t know what happened on the last shot but I somehow managed to be almost in the centre,” Leone added after emulating compatriot Nina Christen, who won the event in Tokyo three years ago but failed to make the final in Paris.

“It was perfect, and I’m really, really happy right now.”

Maddalena rued her performance in the standing segment but was proud of how she bounced back from fifth to win the silver.

“I assessed the mistake. My (setting) was a little off, and I adjusted it and had to make good shots even though my heart was pumping,” she said. 

Elsewhere, Wang Zongyuan and Long Daoyi claimed their country’s fourth diving gold by winning the men’s synchronised 3m springboard title and keeping alive their goal of taking all eight on offer.

Mexico’s Juan Celaya and Osmar Olvera took silver and Britain’s Anthony Harding and Jack Laugher won bronze.

The Chinese divers recovered from two problematic dives to firm up the lead with near perfection in the last routine. They had the highest score of 95.76 points in the last dive to finish on 446.10 points.

In rowing, Croatia’s Valent Sinkovic celebrated his 36th birthday by coming from behind to win a sensational gold in the men’s pair together with his brother Martin, 34.

With the British crew of Oliver Wynne-Griffith and Tom George having led for most of the race, the Croatian brothers made a late break for glory and crossed the line in a time of 6min 23.66sec, 0.45sec ahead.

“I don’t know what happened during the race, but we did it. Happy birthday to my brother,” an elated Martin said.

In the women’s race minutes later, the Netherlands’ Veronique Meester and Ymkje Clevering took control from the start, opening up a big lead that they never relinquished and cruised to victory in 6:58.67 to take gold.

The men’s lightweight double sculls final followed a similar pattern, as defending champions Paul O’Donovan and Fintan McCarthy from Ireland took over by the halfway point, leaving Italy and Greece to fight it out for second.

A heroic final spurt saw the Italians cross the line second, just over a tenth of a second ahead of the Greeks.

Introduced in 1996, the lightweight sculls are being replaced by coastal rowing for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.

In the very last such race of the Olympic era, there was redemption for Britons Emily Craig and Imogen Grant, who won gold to make up for missing out on the podium in Tokyo by one-hundredth of a second. Romania were second, ahead of Greece in third. REUTERS, AFP