Switzerland’s Chiara Leone won 50m rifle 3 positions gold at the European Championship in Osijek to claim one of the two Olympic quota places on offer in the women’s event, with the other going to AIN athlete Darya Chuprys, who finished sixth.
In the men’s 50m rifle 3 position event – which was won by Norway’s Jon-Hermann Hegg - the Paris 2024 places were claimed by France’s Lucas Kryzs and Miran Maricic of Croatia.
Four women in the final were chasing the two quota places on offer – Leone, Chuprys, Sanja Vukasinovic of Serbia and a second AIN athlete, Valentina Kovalenko.
Leone (pictured) made sure by finishing on a total of 463.5, with silver and bronze going respectively to Poland’s Julia Piotrowska, who totalled 460.8, and Leone’s 15-year-old compatriot Emely Jaeggi.
Both the silver and bronze medallist had already secured quota places, as had the athletes who finished fourth and fifth – Jeanette Hegg Duestad of Norway and the Czech Republic’s Veronika Blazickova.
Chuprys won the race for the second spot after finishing 0.3 points clear of Vukasinovic, with Kovalenko taking eighth place.
Kryzs earned his quota place as he finished fifth in a final where all four men above him had already secured Olympic spots.
Hegg took gold in 462.3 ahead of Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish on 461.1, with bronze going to Slovakia’s Patrik Jany and Petr Nymbursky of the Czech Republic finishing fourth.
Finland’s Aleksi Leppa, another with a quota place, was sixth, ahead of Norway’s Henrik Larsen and Romain Aufrere of France.
Maricic earned his place as the next eligible candidate having finished 11th in qualifying.
It was the second gold medal for Hegg, who along with Larsen and Ole Halvorsen won the men’s team competition from the French trio of Kryzs, Aufrere and Michael Dhalluin, with bronze going to Austria’s Andreas Thum, Alexander Schmirl and Patrick Diem.
Leone also finished as a double gold medallist as she, Jaeggi and Tokyo 2020 champion Nina Christen won the women’s team event.
Silver went to Duestad, Jenny Stene and Mari Lovseth of Norway, with Poland’s Piotrowska, Natalia Kochanska and Aleksandra Pietruk taking bronze.