Sport shooting
Natascha Hiltrop won the gold medal in the ten-meter recumbent air rifle competition at the Paralympic Games in Tokyo. It was her first triumph at one of the major international tournaments. Bernhard Fendt, on the other hand, missed a place in the top eight in the qualification on Wednesday (01.09.2021).
The Bonn woman had already underlined her medal ambitions in the qualification of the SH1 class with 635.4 rings after 60 shots and landed there in second place. Only the South Korean Jinho Park, who set a Paralympic qualification record with 638.9 points, was better than the incompletely paraplegic Hiltrop.
The two also fought head-to-head in the elimination stage in the final. A 9.6 from Hiltrup in the 20th shot seemed to be the preliminary decision in favor of Park, but the latter failed with his 22nd attempt. A 10.8 and 10.6 in the last round finally brought the 29-year-old the victory. Hiltrop had 253.1 rings, Park 253.0. She also set a Paralympic record. Iryna Tschetnik from Ukraine won bronze.
Hiltrop: “The heart then started beating harder …”
“Everything went very well today. In qualifying I was still shaking in the first series. In the final, I didn’t really pay attention to where I was. But then my heart started beating harder than I knew it was Medal will “, said the Paralympics winner afterwards during an interview with ARD and ZDF.
“I didn’t make it up to me to necessarily win a medal. I just made it to the final and shot! “
Natascha Hiltrop
First Sagittarius Gold in 17 years
It was the first gold for the German para sport shooters since Athens 2004, in the Asaka Shooting Range in Tokyo it was even the first medal for the team of the German Disabled Sports Association (DBS). For Hiltrop it was the first victory in a major international competition – in 2016 she won silver one ring behind in Rio. Even at world and European championships she never got above second place.
The second German starter in this class, Bernhard Fendt, missed the final of the best eight shooters by 1.6 points. With 631.1 rings, he landed in 17th place.
Moritz Möbius was also unable to intervene in the medal decision in the starting class SH2 (supported by a stand). He finished 27th in qualification (629.9 rings).