Final Day Double Brings China On Top Of Medal Standings At Shooting World Cup In Rio

Thanks to the two medals conquered in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event, the People’s Republic of China jumps on top of the medal standings in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), where the ISSF World Cup stage in all events concluded today.

50m Rifle 3 Positions Men

A third World Record has been set at the Olympic Shooting Centre in Rio de Janeiro (BRA).

After the Equalled Final World Record achieved yesterday by Russia’s Alexei Klimov in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men event, and the new World Record set by Snjezana Pejcic in the 3 Positions Women event on Friday, China’s shooter Hui Zicheng set his own one, commanding the final of the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event and writing a new page of the record books.

USA’s Matthew Emmons, Bronze medallist in this event at the London 2012 Olympic Games, placed 2nd, closing the gap with Hui during the final shots of the match, but surrendering to the Chinese almost-perfect 10.8 that sealed the Gold medal.

Hui finished with 463.7 points, setting a new Final World Record in this event. The previous one was fired by Russian Federation’s Nazar Louginets in Munich in 2014. Emmons recorded a final score of 461.6 points, and his Silver medal is the third one collected by the United States of America in this competition.

Gold medalist Yi Chun LIN of Chinese Taipei competes in the Trap Women Finals at the Olympic Shooting Center during Day 1 of the ISSF World Cup Rifle/Pistol/Shotgun on April 16, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (Photo by Nicolo Zangirolami)

In the lead after both the kneeling and the prone series, Hui’s teammate Zhu Qinan finished 3rd with 451.2 points, followed by Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish with 439.6.

Russia’s Sergey Kamenskiy, the Bronze medallist in Monday’s 10m Air Rifle Men event, placed 5th with 428.1 points, after overtaking Italian shooter Marco De Nicolo on the edge of an elimination. De Nicolo then concluded in 6th place with 417.3 points.

Eliminated after the 40th shot, Anton Rizov of Bulgaria placed 8th with 393.9, more than ten points behind Hungary’s Peter Sidi, 7th with 404.6, also eliminated after the 10th shot of the standing position.

Skeet Men

Marcus Svensson of Sweden sealed the ISSF World Cup stage in Rio de Janeiro (BRA) with the Skeet Men Gold medal, and emerging as the winner of an unexpected Gold medal match against India’s Mairaj Ahmad Khan.

After they both hit 15 semifinal targets, Svensson and Khan finished tied also at the end of the regular course of the match, where they both crushed 14 clays. In the subsequent tie-breaking shoot-off, Khan missed on his very first double, delivering the first Gold medal of his career to Marcus Svensson.

A three-way shoot-off was required to determine the two participants of the Bronze medal match, as at the end of the semifinal round Tammaro Cassandro of Italy, Vincent Hancock of the United States and Juan Jose Aramburu of Spain all finished with 14 target hits.

Hancock, the reigning ISSF World Champion and a two time Olympic Gold medallist, surprisingly missed first and concluded in 5th place. Despite staying out of the medal matches, Hancock was honoured immediately after the medal ceremony with the 2015 ISSF Men’s Shooter of the Year Award, delivered to him by the President of the ISSF, Mr. Olegario Vazquez Raña and by the Secretary General of the ISSF, Mr. Franz Schreiber.

The match for the 3rd step of the podium saw Cassandro, another first-time semifinalist in the ISSF World Cup, perform the perfect match. He crushed all of his targets, claiming the Bronze medal with 16 hits against Aramburu’s 15. 6th, with 13 semifinal hits, placed Anton Astakhov of the Russian Federation.

Final Day Double Brings China On Top Of Medal Standings At Shooting World Cup In Rio

Recap of the competition

Thanks to the two medals conquered in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event, the People’s Republic of China jumps on top of the medal standings in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), where the ISSF World Cup stage in all events concluded today.

Hui Zicheng’s Gold and Zhu Qinan’s Bronze are added to the Gold pocketed by Du Li in the 10m Air Rifle Women event, the very first final of the competition. More medals for China have been secured by Cao Yifei, 2nd in the 10m Air Rifle Men, Wang Zhiwei, 3rd in the 50m Pistol Men, Zhang Jingjing, 2nd in the 25m Pistol Women, and Lu Min, 3rd in the Skeet Women event.

The Russian Federation finished the competition in 2nd place, securing 2 Gold medals, 2 Silvers and 1 Bronze. Ukraine followed in 3rd with 2 Golds as well and 1 Bronze.

Croatia’s Snjezana Pejcic Set New World Record And Wins Gold At Shooting World Cup In Rio

The Croatian athlete, who finished in front of Germany’s Barbara Engleder and Mongolia’s Nandinzaya Gankhuyag, also received the 2015 ISSF Women’s Shooter of the Year Award from the ISSF Secretary General, Mr. Franz Schreiber.

Rio de Janeiro (BRA) – The current leader of the World Ranking in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women event, Croatian shooter Snjezana Pejcic, strongly reaffirmed her supremacy by securing the World Cup Gold medal in Rio de Janeiro (BRA), also nailing the new World Record in the qualification round, where he scored 594 points.

Pejcic, who also collected the 3 Positions Silver medal in Bangkok (THA) last month, grabbed the lead at the end of prone series, eventually concluding with 458.8 points. 3.2 more than Germany’s Barbara Engleder, the Silver medallist.

“So far so good,” said Pejcic after the medal ceremony. “The Olympics are still far away, I need to focus on the next two World Cup stages in Munich and Baku. The Games are a completely different story.”

The celebration for the Croatian continued even after the medal ceremony, when Pejcic, Bronze medallist at Beijing 2008 in the Air Rifle event, received the 2015 ISSF Women’s Shooter of the Year Award from the ISSF Secretary General, Mr. Franz Schreiber.

“They had a great timing!” Concluded Pejcic with the trophy in her hands.

Germany’s Engleder, leader of the match at the end of the kneeling series, missed the 10th-ring with four of her last five standing shots, sliding away from Pejcic in the conclusive section of the final and finishing with 455.6 points.

3rd, participating in her first final ever in this event, placed Mongolia’s Nandinzaya Gankhuyag, who concluded with a disappointing 7.2 and 443.3 points, letting Engleder overtake her at the very last moment.

Croatia’s Snjezana Pejcic Set New World Record And Wins Gold At Shooting World Cup In Rio

Just outside of the podium concluded Petra Zublasing of Italy, winner of the Shooter of the Year Award in 2014, who finished 4th with 435.7 points. Just 0.1 points behind Gankhuyag at the 43rd-shot mark. Mahlagha Jambozorg of the Islamic Republic of Iran, concluded 5th with 421.9 points.

6th, despite being in 2nd position after both the kneeling and the prone series, placed Poland’s Agnieszka Nagay with 411.9 points.

Eliminated after the 40th shot, United States’ Sarah Beard placed 7th with 398.8 points, failing to improve her previous best result, a 4th place he pocketed in Bangkok (THA) last month. 8th, also eliminated after the 40th shot, concluded Nikola Mazurova of Czech Republic with 397.2 points.

The ISSF World Cup stage in Rio de Janeiro will continue today with the Skeet Women final, scheduled at 2:00 PM (UTC-3) followed by the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final at 4:45 PM.