RIO DE JANEIRO — Barbara Engleder is going out with gold, and Du Li with a bronze to add to her extensive medal collection.
Engleder built enough cushion to overcome an average final shot to capture gold in women's 3-position rifle Thursday at the Rio de Janeiro Games, the final Olympics for two of shooting's most decorated shooters.
Following the medal ceremony, Engleder said she is retiring at 33 to take care of her son and the 34-year-old Du called it her last Olympics.
"I will shoot in the World Cup final and then I quit," Engleder said. "This was my last Olympics and one of my last events."
Not a bad way to go out.
Engleder had a long, successful career, supported by her service as a sports soldier in the German military. She never really wanted to become a soldier, but did so at the behest of her father to fund her shooting.
Engleder's first Olympics were the 2004 Athens Games, where she finished seventh. She was ninth at Beijing in 2008 — she also competed in 10-meter air rifle — was sixth at London in 2012.
In Rio, realizing she had just secured gold — by 0.2 points — Engleder dropped to her knees, raised her gun in the air and began shouting. She followed that with a skipping, wind milling dance across the venue.
Engleder cracked a wry smile after the German national anthem began, then started singing the words.
Organizers, meanwhile, insisted the Rio Olympics was safe despite a second bullet being fired into the equestrian venue and a brutal military police shooting not far from the Maracana Stadium.
Games spokesman Mario Andrada said safety was guaranteed, even after a bullet landed near the equestrian venue's stables — the second gun scare at the site in five days.
It follows an attack on a media bus which one eyewitness believes was a shooting. On Wednesday, two military police were gunned down in a favela near the Maracana.
Earlier, Croatian brothers Martin and Valent Sinkovic secured a gold medal in the men's double sculls final in the Olympic rowing regatta, in a tough duel that saw them battling Lithuania's boat neck-and-neck for much of the race.
Croatia won in a time of 6:50.28, Lithuania claimed silver in 6:51.39 and Norway took bronze.
Germany's Olympic rowing regatta also got off to a flying start as they claimed gold in both women's and men's quadruple sculls Thursday.
Annekatrin Thiele, Carina Baer, Julia Lier and Lisa Schmidla crossed the line in a time of 6min 49.39sec to hold off the Netherlands and (6:50.53) and Poland in third (6:50.86) with defending Olympic champions Ukraine down in fourth.
Germany's men had defended their Olympic crown in the men's quadruple sculls moments earlier at the Rodrigo de Freitas Lagoon.
Dominant New Zealand rowing duo Eric Murray and Hamish Bond, meanwhile, defended their Olympic title in the men's pair to stretch their remarkable unbeaten record to 69 races since they teamed up in 2009.
The Kiwis claimed gold in 6min 59.71sec with South Africa claiming silver and Italy bronze.
Switzerland fought off Denmark to take gold in the lightweight men's four in the Olympic rowing regatta.
The Swiss clocked a time of 6 minutes 20.51 seconds. Denmark took silver 1.46 seconds behind them. France won the bronze.
