It was a very nervous day

As we have seen many times here in Osijek already, the outcome of some matches was totally impossible to predict. As for yesterday, it was absolutely impossible to understand the outcome.

The Finals program started with the 10m Air Rifle Women event. Where we witnessed a fierce battle between three athletes. In the end, Romanian Laura-Georgeta Ilie was able to get past Audrey Gogniat from Switzerland and to win Gold with a difference of 1,4 points! Serbian Aleksandra Havran won Bronze.

In Team competitions it was a success of Norwagian ladies Jeanette Hegg Duestad, Mari Bårdseng Løvseth, and Amalie Evensen. Hungarians Eszter Dénes, Eszter Mészáros, and Gitta Bajos took Silver medals, Romanias Laura-Georgeta Ilie, Roxana Sidi, and Adriana-Roberta Teodorescu – Bronzes.

Then it was the turn of the 10m Air Rifle Men event. It came as a surprise to many that the AIN athlete Ilia Marsov took first place in the qualification. During the Finals, he remained in the middle of the tournament table, constantly rising higher and higher. The difference between first, second and third place was negligible. The winner was Ukrainian Serhii Kulish with 252.0 points, which is only 0.3 points more than Marsov's result! What a tension! Miran Maričić from Croatia took Bronze.

Filip Nepejchal, Aleš Entrichel, and Jiří Přívratský from Czechia became the best in Team competitions followed by Croatians Petar Gorša, Miran Maričić, and Josip Sikavica. Patrick Diem, Martin Strempfl, and Thomas Mathis from Austria took third place.

The day's program was closed by the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team event. Both parts of the Final could be called a Sleepy Kingdom: towards the end of the matches, some athletes woke up and started to act!

In the Bronze medal match it was a meeting of Mr. and Mrs. Olympic Champions Zorana Arunović and Damir Mikec from Serbia. They competed against Bulgarians Antoaneta Kostadinova and Kiril Kirov. Throughout the match, Damir and Zorana were in the lead. When everything was almost decided, Antoaneta and Kiril remembered where and why they were, and began to catch up with their opponents. Nevertheless, the meeting took place in a warm and friendly atmosphere and ended with a score of 17-15 in favor of the Serbs.

Absolutely the same situation arose in the match for Gold medals. Şevval Ilayda Tarhan and Yusuf Dikeç from Türkiye met Czechs Viktorie Šindlerová and Pavel Schejbal. As in the Bronze medal match, both coaches called timeouts, which, as usual, radically changed the course of events. When the Turks were two points away from victory, they fell asleep, but the Czechs woke up and started taking shot after shot, leveling the score to 14-14! The final score was 16-14 in favor of Tarhan and Dikeç.

Once again, we thank the athletes for a great show! And, of course, to the audience for their enthusiastic support!

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