Air Gun European Championships: Pistol Shooter Veronika Major Wins Gold in Yerevan

File photo of Veronika Major

Veronika Major won the gold medal in the air pistol competition on Sunday at the European Shooting Championships in Yerevan, Armenia.

The 28-year-old Olympic bronze medalist from Hungary won with 238.8 points, triumphing in a continental championship event for the first time in her adult career. Manja Slak from Slovenia finished second with 238.2 points, while Antoaneta Kostadinova from Bulgaria came third with 215 points.

As the Hungarian Federation confirmed, Veronika Major was in third place after the first five shots in the final and in second place after the next five shots, fighting a close battle with her Slovenian opponent.

After the 11th shot, which was 10.7, Csaba Győrik’s student took the lead. However, the Slovenian did not want to give up on the gold medal, and after the 15th shot, there was a tie between the two. Veronika Major took the lead again and maintained her advantage, which was clearly demonstrated by her 1.9-point lead after the 19th shot.

There was great excitement before the last shot, as Veronika Major was leading by four tenths: she shot 10.0, while her Slovenian opponent shot 9.8, thus securing the Hungarian delegation’s second gold medal at the continental competition in Yerevan.

“The competition in Yerevan was one of the most difficult championships of my life. I am very proud that I was able to perform well in the last two series of the preliminary competition. Although there were some ups and downs, overall I shot steadily and well in the final. I am particularly pleased that I finished the final with a ten, which was important to me,” said Major. She added that she was mainly competing against herself in the final.

“I am very happy that many years of work have paid off and now I can reveal that I came to Yerevan with the intention of becoming European champion. As for the team’s first place finish, we already proved at the 2024 European Championships in Győr (northwestern Hungary) that this is a very strong team in this lineup. We won gold medals in the traditional team competition and in the trio event. This is now our third team gold medal,” said the winner, who was previously a European champion in this event as a junior.

Major doubled up on Sunday at the European Championships, having previously won gold in the team competition alongside Sára Ráhel Fábián and Miriam Jákó.

Sára Ráhel Fábián revealed that she was disappointed with her individual result because she had expected more, but she did everything she could:

I am glad I finished so well because I knew it would count for the team. I also remembered how close it usually is, and now we beat the Georgians, who came second, by two rounds. There will still be mixed team, solo and trio events at the European Championships. But it is good that we won a medal on the first day of competition.”

Miriam Jákó emphasized that she was “not proud” of her first four series, but in the last two, she achieved what she wanted. “I realized what the problem was. I am glad I persevered, which paid off, as the team won the gold medal. I am also very proud of the others for fighting so hard at the end.”

Via MTI; Featured image: Facebook/Major Veronika

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