Vadovicova seals second R3 win of 2015

Invoking her characteristic steel and determination, the 32-year-old world record holder continued the relentless barrage into the next rounds, leaving Jesson and Ustun to shoot for the silver and bronze.

Slovakia’s Veronika Vadovicova showed her improving form in R3 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH1) on Tuesday (12 May) with her second win of 2015 at the IPC Shooting World Cup in Antalya, Turkey.

The 2013 IPC Shooting European Championships silver medallist eased to victory with 211.0 points after seeing off early challenges from five other shooters.

Initially it was Great Britain’s Ben Jesson who took the lead with two 10.7s in the first competition stage, closely followed by Turkey’s Savas Ustun, the Slovakian paring of Radoslav Morvay and Jozef Siroky and Jesson’s teammate Lorraine Lambert.

Into the second round, Siroky, Morvay and Lambert dropped off enough for the Slovakian, Ustun and Jesson to put some clear air in between them and the rest of the field.

Vadovicova then picked up her game in the first elimination round, posting a 10.9 to take the lead. But Jesson was also on form and matched that with a perfect score of his own.

Invoking her characteristic steel and determination, the 32-year-old world record holder continued the relentless barrage into the next rounds, leaving Jesson and Ustun to shoot for the silver and bronze.

It was Vadovicova’s latest victory after registering a new R3 world record in April in Szczecin, Poland. The Slovakian is also the R2 (women’s 10m air rifle standing SH1) world and European champion.

Jesson held his second place until the fifth elimination round, when he dropped to 9.8 and 10.3 compared to Ustun’s 10.7 and 10.1. A second sub 10.0 score in the penultimate round put the British athlete out of contention completely, as Ustun finished with 207.5 to claim the podium to the delight of the home team.

Jesson’s final bronze medal score was 186.2.

In the team event, the performance of the three Slovakians put them into pole position with a combined 1884.7.

Great Britain (1868.5) sealed the silver with the addition of Mandy Pankhurst’s qualifying performance, whilst Turkey (1859.4) were third.

Full results are available at IPC Shooting’s website.

Competition continues on Wednesday (13 May) with P2 (women’s 10m air pistol SH1) and R4 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2).

Live results, provided by IPC Shooting Targets and Results System Provider Sius, will be available every day.