News

-5 to the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing: spotlights on Yang Haoran

2nd Youth Olympic Games · Nanjing, CHN

With only five days to go to the second Youth Olympic Games editions, Chinese media turned the spotlights on the world's best 10m Air Rifle Men shooter, Yang Haoran (18)

The 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing will kick off in five days: the Opening Ceremony scheduled for the 16th of August will open the second edition of the YOG, four years after the inaugural Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

 

80 young shooters coming from 57 different countries will compete in six shooting events, two more than in 2010. Next to the 10m Air Rifle and 10m Air Pistol Men and Women Youth events (which were also part of the 2010 program), Nanjing will host the 10m Air Pistol and the 10m Air Rifle Mixed International Team events, combining genders and nationalities.

 

The first Shooting sport medals will be assigned on Sunday the 17, at the 10m Air Pistol Women Youth event. The other five finals will follow one after the other, every day, right to the 22nd of August.

 

Spotlights are on the Chinese national medal hope Yang Haoran. The 1996 shooter is considered the strongest 10m Air Rifle Men shooter of the world. After winning two ISSF World Cup stages and the World Cup Final in 2013, he secured one World Cup Gold and one World Cup Silver this year, also setting a new Final World Record Junior of 207.7 points.

 

Such great performances lifted him atop of the international 10m Air Rifle Men world ranking, where he's standing ahead of Olympic and World Champions. Therefore, Yang is one of the favorites in the run-up to the ISSF World Championship in all events that will take place in Granada, Spain, from the 6 through the 20 of September, when the first Rio 2016 Olympic Quota places will be awarded. After that, he will participate in the ISSF World Cup Final in Gabala, Azerbaijan, from the 21 to the 28 of October, where he will try to defend the title he secured one year ago in Munich (GER).

 

In Nanjing, Yang will be up against 19 other shooters from around the world. But the 18-year old athlete is approaching the Youth Olympic Games with no stress: “It's all the same to me.” He said to ISSF News. “I will do more training tying to shoot better results and to gain experience. The Youth Olympic Games will be an important step on my way to the 2016 Olympic Games.”


Check out Yang's best achievements table at: http://www.issf-sports.org/athletes/athlete.ashx?personissfid=SHCHNM2202199601

 

Marco Dalla Dea

 

ISSF Partners