Shooting: Martina wins World Cup leg

Singapore's Martina Lindsay Veloso shot her way to World Cup glory in Munich yesterday.

The 14-year-old won the women's 10m air rifle title, defeating some of the sport's biggest names, such as 2008 Olympic champion Katerina Emmons of the Czech Republic and 2010 European champion Andrea Arsovic of Serbia.

It is believed she is the first Singaporean female to triumph at the World Cup level. Singapore's top shooter, Olympian Jasmine Ser, previously reached three World Cup finals but failed to win.

The Munich World Cup is the second leg of the four-stop annual series.

Jeanine Heng, the Singapore shooting team's high performance manager, said of Martina's feat: "All of us are a little bit surprised because she is so young and we did not expect her to peak so early.

"We can take it as an indication that she can do well for the Olympics but we have to be careful not to expect too much of her and put too much pressure on her.

"Her achievement shows that we and the sports school have been doing something right with the junior shooters."

Martina, a Secondary 3 student at the Singapore Sports School, recorded 206.9 points, 0.3 more than second-placed Emmons, to take the gold. "When I found out that I had won, I was really shocked," the teenager said.

Arsovic bagged the bronze medal with 184.6 points.

Martina was introduced to shooting as a Primary 6 pupil at Innova Primary after a shooting programme was organised at her school.

Up next for her are the Commonwealth Games in July and Youth Olympic Games in August.

The result also puts her in good stead as she attempts to qualify for the shooting World Championships in early September and the Asian Games later that same month.

This article was first published on June 9, 2014.
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