Greek Shooter Anna Korakaki Wins Silver At World Championships

Greek Olympic shooter Anna Korakaki on Thursday won the silver medal in women’s 10m air pistol at the 2023 ISSF World Championships taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from August 14 to September 1.

“It was a tough day – since the qualifications, it’s the world championships, it’s always difficult – but I made it, thank God!” Korakaki told the cameras with a big smile after her win.

The Greek athlete, who is world nr.1, lost the gold medal to China’s Jiang Ranxin.

Korakaki clinched 238.3 points at the event against Jiang’s 239.8.

Korakaki’s close shot to gold

Jiang came into medal contention after 18 shots of the final, and recorded a 10.8 to take the lead in the next stage, the International Olympic Committee describes.

Korakaki caught up with the Chinese champion in the later stages and went into the final shots with just 0.6 points separating the two athletes. But shooting a low 8.9 to start, the Greek Rio Olympic champion ultimately had to settle for silver.

“Every competition is different and every competition is special,” Korakaki said after the final. “This is my fourth medal in a row at a world championships. I’m very honoured, I’m very happy and I’m very thankful.”

The Greek champion said she would like to dedicate her new medal to her brother who didn’t make it to come to Baku because of a major health issue.

Greek Olympic shooter’s latest achievements

Anna Korakaki, of Drama, Thrace, northern Greece, has competed since 2009. She joined the Greek national shooting team a year later.

She represented Greece at the 2016 Summer Olympics, winning a gold medal in the 25m pistol shot event and a Bronze medal in the 10m air pistol shooting event.

Korakaki was the first Greek woman in her maiden appearance at an Olympics, then aged 20 years, to be a multi-Olympic medalist for Greece at the same Olympiad, a fete last achieved by a Greek Olympic athlete more than a century ago, at the 1912 Summer Olympics with Konstantinos Tsiklitiras.

Since the Rio Olympics, Korakaki has won multiple medals at the World Championships, European Championships, European Games and Mediterranean Games.

On 12 March 2020, she became the first woman to be the originating Olympic athlete torchbearer of an Olympic torch relay.

Most recently, in May, Korakaki achieved the gold medal in the 10m air pistol event at the Shooting World Cup, also in Baku, Azerbaijan, and in June, she added another major success to her credit, winning the gold medal in 25m pistol at the European Games held in Krakow.