By Xinhua
Bangkok : Promising Srao Harveen of India became the first Universiade shooting champion here Friday by winning the women’s 10-metre air pistol individual event.
Harveen, 21, and India’s national champion in 2006, collected the highest score of 388 points in the qualification round, and 98.1 points in the 10-shot final, winning with a total of 486.1 points.
“My personal best qualification result is 390 points, which was achieved in the national championships last year,” said Harveen.
Ukrainian Olena Kostevych, the 2004 Athens Olympic Games gold medallist, took the silver medal with a total score of 483.5 points (394+99.3), followed by Russia’s Kira Mozgalova with 481.8 points (384+97.8).
“I was eighth in the World Cup in the US and ninth in Sydney,” said Harveen.
“I took this competition as preparation for the Beijing Olympics. However, I still need to win a place in the squad in the national championships this year.”
The final of the women’s 10m air pistol, the first-ever shooting final in the Universiade history, saw world-class marks with all finalists’ qualification scores higher than 384 points out of 40 shots.
Earlier, Ukraine won the team gold with a total of 1,153 points from three members, followed by South Korea and India.
The four-day shooting competition offers 40 gold medals in 20 events.