World number three Drozd came out on top in the gold medal match with Great Britain's Elena Allen on a scoreline of 14 hits to 13.

"It feels great," said the 20-year-old, who secured the first of three Rio 2016 Olympic Games places on offer.

"It's the first time.

"I never had a gold before.

"I have been travelling for several years now, but I had never had a year like this.

"My three rounds of qualification went smooth.

"And I started off the final with a 16, a perfect score, and the 14 in the medal match worked out in my favour.

"I definitely felt the pressure of the final, I was a bit shaky, but I took some deep breaths and I focussed on my goals.

"Luckily I made it through."

Danka Bartekova of Slovakia took the bronze after a shoot-off with Russian Albina Shakirova.

The London 2012 bronze medal winner was relieved to have secured a quota place for Rio and revealed that her commitments as part of the International Olympic Committee Athletes' Committee have had to take a back seat in the build-up to the World Championships.

"It has been a tough match," said the 29-year-old

"The bronze medal match was all about the nerves.

"I am happy I turned out to be the strongest.

"I really hoped for a medal.

"I was on the hedge, from the beginning right to the end, willing to win a medal and to secure a quota place.

"I have done everything I could to prepare in the best way for this World Championship.

"I gave up many meetings and unfortunately I was not able to travel to [Summer] Youth Olympic Games (in Nanjing), which is sad because I really wanted to go there.

"But I knew I had to prepare well for the World Championships: I only had one chance.

"I am happy that the preparation paid off."

London 2012 bronze medallist Danka Bartekova of Slovakia has been juggling her IOC role with preparing for the Shooting World Championships ©Getty Images



There was further US success in the women's junior skeet competition as Dania Jo Vizzi came through a close final with Germany's Katrin Wieslhuber 13-12 to take the gold medal.

Czech Barbora Sumova overcame Anastasiia Koira of Ukraine to take bronze, while Vizzi picked up a second gold as the US also took team gold with a junior world record of 204 ahead of the Czech Republic and China.

European junior champion in 2012, Jean Quiquampoix of France, added the men's junior 25 metre rapid fire pistol to his collection registering 28 hits to beat Russian Aleksandr Marchev, with bronze going to South Korea's Park Jungwoo.

Team gold went the way of China who set a junior world record of 1719-36x, with silver going to South Korea and bronze to Russia.

The third junior world record of the day came in the men's 10m air rifle team competition as a score of 1869.6 saw France claim the World Championship title ahead of China and Russia.

However, in the individual competition, it was Russia who came out on top as European Championship silver medallist Vladimir Maslennikov won gold with a score of 206.8 points.

Maslennikov finished just 1.1 points clear of Armenia's Hrachick Babayan, who added World Championship silver to his silver from Nanjing 2014.

Another Russian secured bronze in the form of Evgeny Panchenko, who won his first medal at international level.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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