Stojadinovic Wins World Title in Doha, Serbia Gets Quota
A closing 10.0 lifted her past South Korea's Sehe Oh and to the title with 358.4 points. Serbia has its first quota for the 2028 Olympics.
Before the 35th and last shot of the final, Aleksandra Stojadinovic was in second place. South Korea’s Sehe Oh led her by 0.6 of a point. Stojadinovic hit a 10.0, Oh managed only an 8.7, and at that moment Serbia had a world champion in small-bore rifle three positions.
The gold from the World Championships in Doha is worth more than a medal. Stojadinovic has brought Serbia its first quota for the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles. Three quotas are awarded in every Olympic event at the Doha championships.
How did the final in Doha unfold?
She reached the final from third place in qualifying, with 593 points, one short of the national record Teodora Vukojevic has held since 2023. Only Britain’s Seonaid McIntosh and Norway’s Janet Hegg Duestad, the 2025 world champion from Cairo, shot better.
The final began well for Stojadinovic. After the first ten shots from the kneeling position she led with 103 points, and Japan’s Misaki Nobata was second, 0.7 behind. In the prone position South Korea’s Hana Im took the lead, with Stojadinovic right behind her, just two tenths of a point back. Duestad was third and McIntosh fourth.
The closing standing stage brought the most turnarounds. Stojadinovic moved back into the lead early on, only for Duestad to overtake her. The Norwegian then missed her 12th standing shot, which opened the way to first place for the Serbian, and she took it. She lost the lead again soon afterward, but held a firm grip on second place all the way to the 35th shot.
At that point the gap was 0.6 of a point in Oh’s favor. A 10.0 against an 8.7 gave Stojadinovic a 1.3-point swing on that last attempt, which made the final margin 0.7 of a point:
- gold: Aleksandra Stojadinovic, 358.4 points
- silver: Sehe Oh (South Korea), 357.7 points
- bronze: Misaki Nobata (Japan), 348.2 points
What does this gold mean for Serbian shooting?
Stojadinovic’s medal is only the third in the history of the World Championships for Serbian and Yugoslav senior women in three positions. Before her came the silver of Desanka Perovic in Phoenix in 1970 and the team bronze of Ivana Maksimovic, Andrea Arsovic and Lidija Mihajlovic in Munich in 2010. Since those two were silver and bronze, this is the first gold in the event.
For the Olympic cycle there is one concrete fact: the quota for Los Angeles 2028 was won at this championship, with a world title, and it is the first Serbia has secured.
Who is Aleksandra Stojadinovic?
She was born on August 19, 2004, and competes for the club Novi Sad 1790. She shoots small-bore rifle in three positions and air rifle. This season has brought her a string of medals: first place at the World Cup in Cairo on October 15, then bronze at the Mediterranean Games in Taranto.
At the same championships in Doha she also competed in air rifle, where she finished 14th. Three positions, as the final showed, is her event: kneeling, prone and standing, and she held a place among the top three throughout the final.
