Tokyo 2020 Olympics : Russia's Vitalina Batsarashkina Wins Gold
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This marks the first gold medal of the Russian Olympic Committee at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
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Batsarashkina holding her gold medal
Russia's Vitalina Batsarashkina won the gold medal in the 10m air pistol competition, achieving an Olympic record in the process.
This is the first gold medal of the Russian Olympic Committee in the Tokyo Olympics, and their third medal in total.
The Russian Olympic committee is comprised of Russian athletes participating under a neutral flag, while the Russian anthem is not played if they win the gold medal. This approach is due to the ban imposed on Russia from participating in the Olympic games, given their doping controversy.
Batsarashkina previously won the silver at the 2016 Rio Games in the same category, only to compensate in the best way with an Olympic record of 240.3 points, ahead of Bulgarian Antoaneta Kostadinova, who won the silver (239.4) and China's Jiang Ranxin, who won the bronze (218.0).
Batsarashkina is also participating in the 25m pistol competition.
![In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had "engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)](https://alpha-en-media.almayadeen.net/media/image/2024/12/21/b4a69f2e-8682-43e4-9d37-49482b304ab3/3.png?v=2&format=webp "In a 2021 interview with Frontline by former US special representative James Jeffrey, he says he had \"engaged with [HTS] via backchannels while serving in President Trump’s State Department. (Al Mayadeen English; Illustrated by Batoul Chamas)")
