A further target hit! An extraordinary Diana Bacosi achieves the silver medal in the women's skeet final, stepping onto the Olympic podium one more time after the gold she attained at Rio 2016.
Concentration is the outstanding feature of Diana’s performance throughout the final phase. It is evident in her attitudes, always holding herself aloof from the competitors, examining the platform as thoroughly as she can so as to gather its secrets, meanwhile steadily keeping a watchful eye on her opponents. A shooting elimination round full of suspense. After attaining the head-to-head matchup against Amber English, the athlete relying on Gemini chokes finishes breaking 55 clay pigeons out of 60, thus seeing the Olympic top placement slip through her fingers by one single point. However the dreamlike challenge experienced by the 38-year-old hailing from Città della Pieve does not vanish as yet again she climbs onto the second step of the podium of this international sports event.
The Chinese Meng Wei rounds it out, placing third and carving her name into the annals of history for setting the new world record with 124 out of 125 targets hit in the qualification round.
After her success and wrapped in the tricolour flag, aware of having achieved a splendid feat anew as well as of gifting the Italian people with joy, the latter following the events revolving around skeet shooting with increasing interest, Diana loosens up smiling and hugging her friend Chiara Cainero, who takes a beating sticking with a score of 114.
“I have been craving for gold, I gave my best and I grasped a silver medal after all, so I wouldn't have it any other way!” – were the athlete’s first words after the competition. - “I managed to keep up with my performance and I ultimately lost by one single target: it may happen when it comes to sports. I want to dedicate this medal to all Italians, for the extremely trying year we have gone through, which we still were able to overcome!”.
We are proud of you Diana, first and foremost as you are an athlete wearing the Italian blue vest and also because the Gemini crew got the chance to stand on the podium by your side. Thanks for giving us this emotion, we are happy that you belong to our family!