TOKYO (Reuters) – The growing rivalry between Bulgarian Antoaneta Kostadinova and Russian Vitalina Batsarashkina will take centre stage at the Asaka Shooting Range on Friday when they go for gold in the women’s 25-metre pistol final at the Tokyo Olympics.
Five days after Batsarashkina pipped her to 10m pistol gold, Kostadinova shot 590 to top the qualification round ahead of China’s Xiao Jiaruixuan, who tallied 587.
Batsarashkina, representing the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), shot 586 to qualify third while Rio Games champion Anna Korakaki of Greece is still in the running.
German Doreen Vennekamp, Taiwanese duo Tien Chia-chen and Wu Chia-ying, and Kim Min-jung of South Korea complete the top eight who made the final.
Bulgaria’s two-time Olympic champion Maria Grozdeva missed the cut, as did world champion Olena Kostevych of Ukraine.
Georgian Nino Salukvadze, who became the first female athlete to compete in nine Olympics, finished her campaign without a medal having failed to reach the final of both her pistol events in Tokyo.
Russian athletes are competing under the ROC flag at the Tokyo Olympics this year as part of sanctions for doping scandals.
(Reporting by Amlan Chakraborty in New Delhi; editing by Peter Rutherford)
