Satu Makela-Nummela, a shooter from Finland, won the Olympic gold medal of women's trap with 91 hits at the Beijing Shooting Range on Tuesday.

Topping the qualification tally with 70 hits, the 38-year-old led over world record holder Zuzana Stefecekova from Slovakia at the beginning. But the latter missed the third, the seventh and the ninth targets and plunged to the second.

Despite some misses, Makela-Nummela maintained her advantage to the end.

Stefecekova finished with 89 hits, seven less than her record but enough to lift her to the silver podium.

Competition for the bronze was a vie to make less mistakes.

Maybe the most noticeable was Japanese Yukie Nakayama. With 67 points from the qualification, two less than the other three finalists, she managed to catch up and finish in a draw with them.

It was a rare shoot-off to see four players compete.

Daina Gudzineviciute from Lithuania and Elena Struchaeva from Kazakstan missed the first bird one after another.

Then, Nakayama failed to hold her nerves and leaving the plate fly away.

It was American shooter Corey Cogdell's turn.

When the bronze medalist from the 2007 Changwon World Cup stepped forward, all eyes were fixed on her.

She raised her gun, aimed for a while, and fired.

The target broke with pink smoke.

The bronze medalist was decided. Her score was 86 hits.

(Xinhua News Agency August 11, 2008)