Andrija Zlatic did it again. The 36-year old Serbian shooter led the 50m Pistol Men event at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany, exactly ad he had done at the previous world cup stage, in Fort Bennig, USA, just two weeks ago.
Zlatic fought right to the end of today's match, climbing up form the fourth place to the first.
The last two shots gave him the victory. With a 10.1 and a 9.8 shots, outscored his direct opponent Mai Jiajie of China, winning his second Gold back to back with a final score of 195.1 points.
“This time it has been more difficult than in Fort Benning.” Zlatic said.
“Here in Munich it's cold (6 celsius, Ed.), and I had to fight against the weather during this morning qualifications. On the other side, the temperature was just perfect in Fort Benning.”
“More shooters were competing here in Munich, everybody likes this range, and the competition has been really tight.”
Mai Jiajie, 25, arrived here in Munich with a world cup silver medal won in Changwon, last April, around his neck. And yet he walked out of the competition with the second Silver medal of his season, won with a final score of 195.1 points.
Following them, Spain's Pablo Carrera, 26, won today's Bronze medal with 175.1 points in the final. The spanish shooter fought for the medals since the beginning of the match, but an 8.8 scored on his 17th final shot kept him far from the two highest step of the podiums.
The young Spanish shooter had never won a medal in this event, before, in spite of making it to the finals twice, in 2011 and 2009.
The most successful free pistol shooter ever, the two-time Olympic Champion in this event, Jin Jongoh of Korea, 33, met today's youngest finalist, 21-year old Will Brown of USA, in a shoot-off at the first elimination after the eighth final shot.
This time, Jin did not make it. Brown outscored him in the tiebreaker, and the Korean closed the match eighth place with a final score of 73.9 points. Jin had won his last ISSF World Cup Stage here in Munich, last year.
Brown, participating here in his first 50m Pistol Men final ever, had to leave the match at the following elimination, placing seventh after shot 10, with a final score of 93.2 points. The young American shooter had won the 10m Air Pistol Men event in Fort Benning, just two weeks ago, but could not repeat himself here in Munich, one of the best though most difficult ranges of the world.
India's Jitu Rai, 25, had never made it to an ISSF World Cup stage final round, before. He entered today's final in Munich with the lowest qualification score, 560 points, and then resisted right to the 12th final shot, when he was eliminated with a final score of 111.7 points.
Another shooting senator, 2012 Wolrd Cup Final champion Tian Zhang of the People's Republic of China, dropped out of the round before the medal match. The 32-year old shooter, who had qualified in first place with 567 points, was eliminated after shot 14, with a final score of 133.7 points that placed him in fifth. Today's was his first final, this year. The Chinese shooter had finished twice on the podium during last year's ISSF World Cup Series, securing a Silver in Milan and a Bronze at the Pre-Olympic event in London.
48-year old Joao Costa of Portugal, a World Cup veteran who participated in 40 stages since 1996, followed Zhang, leaving the match after shot 16 with 154.8 points and taking the fourth place.
The 2013 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Munich will continue today with the 25m Pistol Women final taking place at 1.30 PM, this afternoon.