ISSF World Cup Munich 2024: France's Camille Jedrzejewski wins women's 25m Pistol gold

She clinched the top honour after a shootoff win over friend Doreen Vennekamp.

France’s Camille Jedrzejewski underlined her excellent prospects of success at this summer’s home Olympics in Paris as she defeated Germany’s world champion Doreen Vennekamp in a shoot-off to earn 25m pistol women gold at the ISSF World Cup 2024 in Munich.

Six days earlier these two sometime training partners had contested the European 25m pistol title in Osijek, with the French athlete – who had trailed by one point coming into the final series – earning gold with three hits as her friend missed all but her last effort.

Amid scenes of high excitement at the Olympic Shooting Range the two friends stood alongside each other again after both had finished their scheduled competition with scores of 40 – the total Vennekamp scored to win her world title last year and equal the then world record.

With both coaches looking on nervously, the two athletes could not be separated in their first sequence of five shots Vennekamp missed her second and fourth efforts and Jedrzejewski her last two.

So they played it again – and this time Jedrzejewski hit five out of five in her series, while the 29-year-old home athlete, who was voted ISSF female Athlete of the Year for 2023, missed with her first and fourth efforts.

Jedrzejewski thus concluded her pre-Olympic competition with successive World Cup golds following her 10m air pistol win in Baku last month.

For the French athlete it was a better turn of fate than she had experienced in April at the Final Olympic Qualification competition in Rio, where she took silver after losing a shoot-off with Vennekamp’s team-mate Josefin Eder.  

The Republic of Korea athlete who holds the current world record of 42, 31-year-old Kim Yeji, took bronze after a late wobble.

With three stages remaining she was on 30, one point more than her two remaining rivals for gold. Two misses in her next sequence saw her sharing the lead on 33 with Jedrzejewski, and one ahead of Vennekamp.

And she slipped back to third place as three misses in what proved to be her final series saw her total 35, with her French and German rivals on 36.

A miss on shot three of her final sequence by Jedrzejewski – who earned an Olympic quota place for France at last year’s European Championships – put the home athlete into a one-shot lead.

But Vennekamp then missed her with her penultimate effort to trigger the shoot-off.

Katelyn Abeln of the United States finished fourth, one place ahead of China’s Zhao Nan, who had topped qualifying with 590 points.

Esha Singh of India, the 19-year-old Asian champion in the 10m air pistol, finished sixth.

Seventh place went to Kim’s 21-year-old compatriot Yang Jiin, who 25m pistol world record to 41 at the Jakarta World Cup in January and equalled that mark at last month’s Baku World Cup before Kim bettered it in the second final to be held in the Azerbaijan capital.

Austria’s 42-year-old Sylvia Steiner took eighth place.

Jedrzejewski told ISSF TV: “I am really proud and grateful to be on the top of the podium today.

“The final of this World Cup was really high level, with a world champion and world record breakers. But I said to myself you are European champion. I believed in myself and when we were both really close to the top the job was done today, so I am proud.

“Doreen is older than me but she is really a kind person and so very talented. She helps me so much, and we shoot in the Bundesliga together for the same club.

“Heading for the Olympics I am in a good way. I want to continue – the French team is really strong all round and I think we can have so much fun at the Olympics.”

Vennekamp explained to ISSF TV that she often trained with Jedrzejewski as well as competing against her.

“It’s good to have Camille as a training buddy and to shoot against her at a really high level.

“After Osijek I told Camille I was going to make it harder this time – so we needed some shoot-off series!

“We could the French and the German team encouraging us. The atmosphere was amazing. I really wanted to come here and get my first Munich World Cup medal, so I did that.

“It is the biggest World Cup. Every athlete is coming here. We had I think 85 girls competing in 25m pistol. It’s a huge amount, and if you can win here you can win at the Olympics.

“I haven’t had the season I had planned. I really wanted to do a little better than I did last year. But I am working really hard and it’s good to have these achievements to tell me I’m on the right path.

“We still have around two months before the Olympics, and it’s planned that my highest level will be there. So while it’s at silver at the moment I will hopefully be getting even better.”

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