Korakaki, who was only 10 during Athens 2004, had already taken a 10m air pistol bronze medal here at Rio 2016 before producing a day of consistently strong performances at the Olympic Shooting Centre.
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Anna Korakaki (GRE) of Greece celebrates after winning the bronze medal.
Korakaki also became the first Greek female athlete to win two medals in a single Games.
The 20-year-old Korakaki prevailed over Germany’s Monika Karsch, 13 years her senior, who mounted a late but ultimately unsuccessful rally to reel her young rival in, coming back from 6-0 down to 6-6, before Korakaki won the seventh five-shot round to secure an 8-6 victory overall. Karsch, also a first-time Olympian, nearly ruined Korakaki’s party with a strong comeback after her Greek rival practically had the gold in the bag.
The bronze medal match featured China’s Zhang Jingjing, the 27-year-old world #1 rated 25m pistol shooter, and Switzlerland’s Heidi Diethelm Gerber, the 47-year old world #7 shooter in the discipline.
Korakaki, dressed in Greece’s blue and white colours, jumped up and down and embraced her coach after winning her second medal.
Korakaki said she was close to quitting shooting three years ago, at 17, because she and her father were “in an open war” with the Hellenic Shooting Federation, particularly in the last two years.
For Karsch, this is her first major global medal, and it is Germany’s second ever medal in the event.
That she managed to win a gold and bronze in her first games, Greece’s first Olympic medals in shooting in 96 years, she credited to “my will, my strength, my motivation from my family, my friends, and hard work”.
“Winning the bronze helped today”, Korakaki said.
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Defending Olympic champion Kim Jang-mi of the Republic of Korea narrowly missed out on qualification for the semi-final, and ended up in ninth place.
