CAIRO, Oct. 15 (Xinhua) -- Serbia's Aleksandra Stojadinovic won the women's 10m air rifle gold medal at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol here on Thursday, edging compatriot Andelija Stevanovic by just 0.3 points for a Serbian one-two finish.
Stojadinovic finished with 250.6 points, ahead of Stevanovic's 250.3, while Japan's Nobata Misaki claimed bronze with 229.2.
China's Fan Xinyi placed fourth with 208.6 points, eliminated after the 20th shot and missing the podium by 0.4 points.
The Serbian pair was level at 229.5 after 22 shots and remained tied at 239.9 after 23. On the final shot, Stojadinovic fired a 10.7 to Stevanovic's 10.4 to secure the gold.
Stojadinovic, 22, claimed her first senior World Cup medal in her fifth World Cup final appearance after qualifying eighth for Thursday's final.
Tearful after winning her first World Cup gold, Stojadinovic told Xinhua, "I am so happy. I feel I'm going to cry," adding that she had trained hard for the competition.
Looking ahead to next month's World Championships in Doha, Qatar, where the first shooting quota places for the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games will be awarded, Stojadinovic said the Cairo victory was an important step in her preparations.
"I think this World Cup is very good preparation because I have so much self-confidence right now," she said.
Stojadinovic credited her coach Goran Stojadinovic with helping her achieve the victory.
"We intensify training three or four weeks before competitions. As the event gets closer, we switch to lighter training," her coach told Xinhua.
The Serbian coach described the Cairo World Cup as the team's final preparation for the World Championships in Doha. "Securing Olympic quota places will be very hard, but we hope we will make it," he said.
Earlier in the day, France's Lucas Kryzs snatched gold in the men's 50m rifle three positions final, overtaking Norway's Jon-Hermann Hegg with the final shot to win by just 0.5 points.
Kryzs entered the decisive 35th shot trailing Hegg by 0.6 points, but scored 10.1 to Hegg's 9.0, finishing with 360.1 points to Hegg's 359.6.
Czechia's Jiri Privratsky claimed bronze with 348.6 points after overtaking compatriot Filip Nepejchal in the closing stages. Nepejchal finished fourth with 338.0.
The result reversed their meeting in Munich in late May, when Hegg beat Kryzs for gold.
"It's incredible. For me, it was very difficult because I finished with silver medals twice, in Granada and Munich," Kryzs told Xinhua. "So today, to take this step and win the gold medal, it's very special."
"Maybe it's experience. I've been on the podium twice, so I think that experience, along with hard work, made the difference," he said, adding that he hoped to win another gold medal at the World Championships in Doha.
Hegg said he was pleased with his silver medal despite narrowly missing out on gold.
"I'm pretty happy. It's been a challenging day, especially in standing," Hegg told Xinhua. "Even though I had a really good start in prone and kneeling, I knew I had to do my very best to be at the top, and I managed to do it, almost."
On his hopes for Doha, Hegg said, "Of course, I know I'm capable of securing a quota place, but there are so many other people who are also capable. So I will work hard, do my best, and we will see."
Thursday marked the end of competition at the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol, which brought together hundreds of shooters from 51 countries and regions at Egypt International Olympic City in the New Administrative Capital, east of Cairo.
France topped the medal standings with two golds, one silver and two bronzes, followed by Germany with one gold, two silvers and two bronzes, while Czechia finished third with one gold, one silver and one bronze.
