– I was sitting in the stands when we heard a violent commotion and I thought, what is happening now? They are not used to rain in Egypt and when half of the annual rain decided to come today it had to be like this, says Hegg Duestad to news. The 23-year-old took his first – and Norway’s third – gold in the championship in the 300 meter match on Tuesday, but just before the start parts of the roof collapsed in the shooting arena in the Egyptian capital, Cairo. – There was only a slight delay of approximately five to ten minutes before they had the situation under control. The incident did not affect us in any way. Fortunately, there were no plates like that in the stand, so I wasn’t nervous that the roof would collapse during the final, she says. – We walked neatly and carefully in the corridors since there were the same type of ceiling tiles there, but it went just fine. There was mostly laughter and irony surrounding the incident afterwards as it went well and no one was hurt, she says with a smile. The coach: – The water ran in. National rifle coach, Vidar Lindstad-Fossmo, was inside the building when the heavy rain caused the material damage. – It was a bit dramatic when the ceiling tiles in the hallway in front of the stand fell down. There was a real downpour and the water flowed in. The ceiling tiles became soft and cracked. Fortunately, no one was injured, he writes in an SMS to news. – I looked out into the hall that the ceiling tiles had fallen down. I walked around the area at a safe distance to check if anyone was injured. Fortunately there was none. There was only one person in the hall who had a kiosk outlet. He stood against the wall and stepped clear of the plates that fell down. The organizer quickly took action and closed off the area. After that, the focus was on the athletes who were going to compete, says the national team coach. He also states that the power to half the shooting range was lost, but that they were able to fix it within a short time. Had a good feeling Gold winner Hegg Duestad was delighted after winning WC gold in the 300 meter match. – I have shot a lot at 300 meters before, but I had a brand new stock. It’s been long days, and in this exercise I just had fun and enjoyed myself. I had fun along the way and it gave me good technical shooting, says Duestad. Duestad shot three series of 197, 196 and 195 points respectively and finished with 588 points, two points ahead of Switzerland’s Sarina Hitz and Sweden’s Elin Ahlin. The Norwegian shooter took bronze in the 50 meters earlier in the championship. Looking forward to the final in team shooting on Wednesday Hegg Duestad is not making big plans for celebration after the WC gold, as there are several medals to fight for. On Wednesday, they meet Switzerland in the team shooting final. – It has been long days and you can feel that you are tired. That’s why it was good to just be able to enjoy 300 meters today. – Tomorrow (Wednesday) there will be at least one more medal and we hope for gold, she concludes.
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