Finland wins first gold at Paralympics

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The Finnish contingent returned home from the Athens Olympics without hearing the national anthem played to mark a victory. However, at the Paralympics on Monday, 23-year-old Minna Leinonen secured the team’s first gold medal, winning the Mixed Air Rifle Prone event by the narrowest of margins.
      Leinonen was among five marksmen and women (this was an event open to both sexes) who gained a perfect score of 600 in the qualifying round. In the final she added a further 105.4 points to beat off the challenge from Ho Gyoung-you of South Korea by just 0.1 points. Bronze went to Johnny Andersen of Denmark.
      Leinonen was naturally delighted with her victory, and more than a little surprised. She had previously not finished higher than 4th in a world-class event (in 2002), and was the youngest member of the Finnish shooting team.


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  Athens Paralympics

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