France’s Edomond Piasecki, 26, won today’s 10m Air Rifle Men competition at the ISSF World Cup in all events taking place at the Royal Artillery Barracks shooting range, the 2012 Olympic shooting venue being tested from the 17th to the 29th of April.
The young shooter climbed up the scoreboard by shooting 103.6 points during the medal match, after scoring 598 points to qualify for the final. With an overall combined score of 701.6 points, Piasecki secured the Gold medal beating his followers by few tenths, pocketing the second ISSF Gold of his career.
Following him, the Silver medal went to Israels Sergy Rikhter, 22, from Israel, who shot today’s highest final score, 104.1 points.
Starting off the match in seventh place with a qualification score of 597 points, Rikhter climbed up the scoreboard, finishing in second with an overall score of 701.1 points, turning out to be 0.5 points shy of winning the Gold.
The qualification’s leader, the Youth Olympic Games Silver medallist Illa Charheika, finished on the podium with a Bronze medal around his neck. The 19-year old shooter – a two-time European Junior champion in 2010 and 2010 – started off the match with 598 points. Then, shooting 102.3 points in the final, he was overtaken by Piasecki and Rikhter, and landed in third.
“It’s great to be shooting here in London, on the Olympic venue.” Charheika said. “I really hope I will be back in this final hall in July, at the Olympics.” The 2010 Youth Olympic Games medallist added.
Peter Hellenbrand of the Nederland, and Pascal Loretan of Switzerland, finished in fourth and fifth place, 700.1 and 699.7 points, respectively.
Behind them, the two Italian teammates Niccolo Campriani and Marco De Nicolo closed the match in sixth and seventh place with the same final score of 699.4 points.
Closing the match in eighth and last place, the 2004 Olympic Champion Zhu Qinan of China did not shoot at his best. Qualified with 596 points, he shot several nines throughout the finals, ending up with a total score of 698.3 points.