Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/713415
maltatoday, WEDNESDAY, 10 AUGUST 2016 20 WARREN ZAMMIT AFTER placing 22nd in the 10 metre air pistol qualification, the Maltese athlete ended up 36th in the round of qualification of the 25 metres pistol qualification pre- cision. Ortyad Gudegmaa from Mon- golia placed just above Malta with 284 points, while Tanyapor- in Prucksakorn from Thailand placed 37th with a total of 282 points. The Greek shooter, Anna Ko- rakaki who won a bronze medal in the 10 metre air pistol placed first with 297 points. Bobana Velicko- vic of Serbia and Afaf Eldhodhad of Egypt placed second and third. The competition will continue at 5 p.m. with the 25m Women's qualification rapid. Bezzina failed to go through to the semi-finals of the women's 25 metres pistol competition after placing 36th in the qualifying. From the first qualifying round based on precision, the 39 year old placed 36th with 283 points. During the second round based on rapid, the Maltese athlete managed to garner a total of 279 points that confirmed her 36th position out of 40 countries. Chinese shooter, Zhang Jinjig finished first with an Olympic record 299 points after manag- ing to overcome Anna Korakaki who went down to second posi- tion. Nino Salukvadze of Georgia ended up in third place. A list of eight countries that include Chi- na, Greece, Georgia, Germany, Bulgaria, North Korea, Switzer- land and Russia will challenge for medals during the semi-final. Sport SPORTTODAY OLYMPICS Williams stays alive in second-round singles U.S. tennis powerhouse Serena Williams dispatched France's Al- ize Cornet in two sets on Monday, ending a streak of weak family performances that saw older sister Venus eliminated from singles on Saturday and the pair knocked out in doubles on Sunday. The younger Williams, a 34-year- old four-time Olympic gold me- dalist, had a slow and frustrating start against Cornet before turning the momentum to win 7-6 (5), 6-2, picking up the pace in the second set after the first ran over an hour long. "I just needed to relax. I was miss- ing shots by literally centimeters," Williams said, adding that she "tried to add a little more spin" in the second set, after a long series of unforced errors in the first. Spain's Garbine Muguruza topped Japan's Nao Hibino 6-1 6-1. Earlier, Czech Republic's Petra Kvitova knocked out former world number one Caroline Wozniacki in the second round of the Rio Olym- pics on Monday, in another poorly attended tennis match on center court. Twice Wimbledon champion Kvi- tova overpowered Wozniacki 6-2 6-4 to progress to the third round, where she will face either Russia's Ekaterina Makarova or Slovakia's Anna Karolina Schmiedlova. "It was a tough draw for me. Petra played well today, really played ag- gressively and got me on my heels a little bit," said Wozniacki, ranked 53 in the world after an injury-rav- aged season. Wozniacki's participation had been in doubt as injury prevented her from fulfilling the minimum number of Davis and Fed Cup ap- pearances required in a four-year Olympic cycle to qualify for the Games. But she made it to Rio, where she was Denmark's flag bearer in the opening ceremony. Germany's Angelique Kerber, ranked second in the world, faced stubborn resistance from Canada's Eugenie Bouchard but won 6-4 6-2. United States' Madison Keys, seeded seventh in the tournament, also progressed to the third round after a nail-biting 7-5 6-7(4) 7-6(5) win against France's Kristina Mlad- enovic on court one. On the men's side, Gilles Muller of Luxembourg beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga of France 6-4 6-3. Monday's matches, like most of the other contests in the first three days of the tennis tournament, were played in stadiums that were more than half empty. Olympics organizers say about 82 percent of all Olympic tickets have been sold out, but for tennis, which boasts some of the world's most recognizable sports stars, attend- ance has been far below that level. Shooting: Maltese shooter places 36th in women's 25 metres pistol qualification Target shooter Eleanor Bezzina managed to garner a total of 283 points to finish 36th out of 40 countries in the 25 metres pistol qualification precision Swimming: Andrew Chetcuti fails to qualify for the semi-final of the 100 metres freestyle Andrew Chetcuti failed to make it to the semi-finals of the 100 metres freestyle after placing fourth in heat 2 with a result of 51.37 WARREN ZAMMIT ANDREW Chetcuti who placed third in the 100 metres freestyle heat four years ago in London Olympics, finished the race be- hind Matthew Duncan Abeysin- ghe of Sri Lanka who took third place. Igor Mogne of Mazambique topped the heat with a result of 50.65. He was followed by Sean Michael Gunn of Zimbabwe. When compared to all swim- mers, Chetcuti ranked 51st out of 59 athletes. Sixteen swimmers out of eight heats made it to the semi-final that will be held tomorrow even- ing. The list of swimmers include athletes coming from Great Bri- tian, Canada, Singapore, Russia, Netherlands, Brazil, China, Aus- tralia, United States, Germany, Belgium, Italy and France. Andrew Chetcuti failed to qualify for the semi-final after finishing 4th in heat 2