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Recap: Day 1 at the 2015 Junior Cup in Suhl

ISSF Junior Cup Rifle / Pistol / Shotgun · Suhl, GER

The competition's first official events took place today in Suhl, Germany

The 2015 ISSF Junior Cup started today, as the competition's first four events -- plus the ISSF Target Sprint -- took place today at the Shooting Centre in Suhl, Germany.


Both men and women competed in 50m Rifle Prone events. Men also competed in the 25m Standard Pistol, and in the Double Trap.


Finally, the Target Sprint events -- both for men and for women -- closed today's programme.


Women's 50m Rifle Prone


Switzerland's Marina Boesiger won the women's 50m Rifle Prone -- the first time that she takes first place in her career. (Her 6th place at last year's World Championship in Granada had been her best result until today.)


Boesiger scored 623.9 points to beat Germany's Tina Lehrich, who came in second (621.4). Polina Medviner of Israel took third place (621.0).


Gold medalist Boesiger also helped her country winning the team event.


Vanessa Hofstetter and Ladina Feuz joined forces with Boesiger, and added up to 1860.5 points -- a score that gave Switzerland first place in the team scoreboard.


Ines Niewada, who came in fourth (620.9), drove France to the second spot (1854.0) -- also thanks to Manon Simon, and Emilie Wintenberger. The two shooters had scored, respectively, 616.9 and 616.2.


The Russian Federation took third place, thanks to three athletes who came, respectively, in 6th, 17th, and 19th -- Olga Efimova, Maria Ivanova, and Yulia Zikova.
Men's 50m Rifle Prone

In the men's version of the event, Russia won -- Evgeniy Ishchenko took gold as he beat Poland's Maciej Wojtasiak.


Wojtasiak had first taken the lead, but eventually lost it to Ishchenko. The 18-year-old of Russia held onto his first place, and closed on 206.8.


In the last four shots, Wojtasiak hit a 10.7 and a 10.9, but that only brought him 0.2 points behind Ishchenko. Close, but no cigar.


Switzerland's Manuel Luescher, who was also once 0.2 points behind Ishchenko, ended up in third (185.3).


Poland also celebrated a team gold.


The gold medalist's 206.8 points -- plus Adam Kuczynski's 621.4 and Marcin Majka's 619.0 -- gave Poland the winning final score of 1863.5.


Luescher's Switzerland came in second (1860.6). France followed in third (1855.7).


25m Standard Pistol


India took over the first two places in the men's 25m Standard Pistol.


The 18-year-old Shivam Shukla won (560 - 10x). His teammate Rituraj Singh, 19, came in second (559 - 13x).


Shukla, who was never in a competition before Suhl, always shot 90 or more in his six series today.


Singh was in a tie for second place with Italy's Dario Di Martino. In a shoot-off, Di Martino lost by 46-40 and settled for third place, leaving silver to Singh.


Predictably, India won the team event too. Achal Pratap Grewal (552 - 09x) joined the efforts of his teammates Shukla and Singh. India closed on a total score of 1671 - 32x.


Well over 30 points behind India, came France. Clement Greffier, Pierre-Alexandre Lhote, and Remi Favier added up to 1635 - 18x, bringing second place to their country.


The Russian Federation came in third (1631 - 20x).
Men's Double Trap


Slovakia's Filip Praj, 20, won today's Double Trap.


Praj, a Junior World Champion at Munich 2010, beat Great Britain's James Dedman by 26 to 23 hits in the gold medal match.


Throughout the match, Praj was always in the lead against Dedman, the silver medalist. In the semifinal, Praj had come in first with 28 hits.


In a close bronze medal match, Austria's James Willett had the best of Russia's Kirill Fokeev (26-25).


Willett first took the lead, but Fokeev then caught up. Going into the last five doubles, the two athletes were tied at 17 hits.


Then, Fokeev missed two targets. Willett, just one.


Though he didn't make any medal, Fokeev helped his country winning the team event. His 139 hits -- plus Yukhimenko's 133, and Khusaenov's 128 -- brought Russia to a winning total score of 400.


The United States of America were six hits behind. Haynes-Lewis, Garvey, and Royer added up to 394 hits, and a silver medal for America.


India took bronze (382), thanks to Pandey, Singh, and Rizvi.

ISSF Target Sprint


It's no surprise that only Germans won today's Target Sprint -- they were all but the only participants.


Except for an Austrian, a Japanese, and two Indians, all athletes taking part in today's events were in fact German.


Alexander Lipinski, Silke Fischer, Eileen Schönherr, Anita Flack, Annika Schlegel, Ricky Krebs, Leon Wolff, and Steffen Hannich were today's winners in the event's eight categories.

VIDEO - Finals 50m Rifle Prone Men Junior

27.06.2015

Alessandro Ceschi

 

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