China’s Guo Wenjun showed nerves of steel as she came from behind on the very last shot to successfully defend her 10m air pistol Olympic title in thrilling fashion on Sunday.
With her final effort, Guo shot a 10.8, just 0.1 points short of a maximum score, drawing gasps from the packed crowd at the Royal Artillery Barracks and overhauling France’s Celine Goberville, who had led going into the last round.
Goberville could only manage 8.8, putting her level on points with Athens 2004 gold-medallist Olena Kostevych of Ukraine. In a shoot-off, Goberville recovered from her disappointment at missing gold and secured silver.
Guo, 28, who said her motto was, “Never give up”, maintained she always felt she had a chance of gold going into the final shot — even though she was trailing by 0.5 points.
“I just focused on doing my best on the final shot,” she said, adding: “I think everyone is good, I just never give up.”
