London: Guo Wenjun successfully defended her Olympic 10-meter air pistol title with a near-perfect last shot in Sunday's final.
This was the second shooting gold in two days for China, a day after Yi Siling won the opening 10-meter air rifle at the Royal Artillery Barracks.
Celine Goberville of France, who blew the gold with an 8.8 on her last shot, won a one-shot shootoff against Olena Kostevych of Ukraine to win the silver medal in her first games. Kostevych, the 2004 Olympic champion, settled for bronze.
Guo scored 10.8 out of 10.9 with her 10th and last shot to rise from second, causing the Chinese team to cheer her surprising victory. Despite being ranked second in the world, she hadn't reached a final, let alone won anything, in two years.
But she topped qualifying by one point from gold-medal favorite Kostevych and Goberville. The trio shot well enough to stay in the medal positions ahead of the other five finalists in a dramatic final.
Guo began the final with a shocking 8.0 and fell to third. How did she recover? With a 10.8.
Kostevych lost the lead after her third shot, a 9.1, her worst. Guo was back on top in the fourth round, but Goberville hit the front in the sixth and stayed there until the last round.
In the shootoff, Goberville scored 10.6 and Kostevych 9.7.
Kostevych responded to a humbling 31st placing in Beijing by becoming the most successful woman at 10 meters in the last four years, with twice as many wins as Guo and a win in the last World Cup last month. But she couldn't keep the momentum going for a second Olympic gold.
Goberville has won only once since 2009 but has always been a contender. This was her 11th final in 14 events in four years, and the medal might keep her shooting. She had halted her phys-ed studies to work toward becoming a riding instructor.
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