The 2004 10m Air Rifle Olympic Champion Zhu Qinan, 29, from the People's Republic of China, won today's 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event Gold at the 51st ISSF World Championship in all Shooting events in Granada, Spain.
It was the first major win of the Chinese athlete in this event, after finishing the 2010 Asian Championship in 3rd and the 2012 Olympics in 5th.
Zhu scored 457.2 points, finishing atop of the podium after a breathtaking neck and neck against the winner of this year's ISSF World Cup stage in Maribor, Sergey Kamenskiy, 26, from the Russian Federation.
The last shot of the final decided the match: Zhu shoot a 10.3, Kamenskiy fired a 9.4, landing in second place with 456.0 points, 1.2 points behind the Chinese winner.
Vitali Bubnovich, 39, form Belarus, finished in third place with 443.6 points, closing this world championship with his second individual Bronze medal after climbing on the the third step of the 10m Air Rifle Men podium the last 8th of September.
The Youth Olympic Games bronze medallist of the Singapore 2010 Serhiy Kulish, 21, from the Ukraine, ended up 3.2 points behind the podium placements, taking the fourth place with 433.7 points.
The reigning Olympic champion Niccolò Campriani, 26, from Italy, secured an Olympic quota place for Rio 2016 by getting into the final. 5 quotas were indeed up for grabs at today's final, and since Kamensky, Bubnovic and Louginets had already won a slot in other events here in Granada, all other finalists received a ticket to Rio, today.
The Italian athlete closed the Kneeling series in last, and did not shoot at his best during the first two five-shot Prone series. Something clicked at the last Prone series: the Italian athlete found his rhythm, recording 53.3 points, and climbing up from the eighth to the sixth place. But starting off the last part of the match – the Standing series - with an 8.3 and a 7.7 did not held him, and he turned out to be the first eliminated athlete, taking the 8th place with a final score of 401.2 points.
The People's Republic of China finished atop of the teams podium (Zhu Qinan, Cao Yifei and Kang Hongwei) with 3497 points. Norway followed in second thanks to Are Hansen - 7th in the individual event – and to his teammates Ole Magnus Bakken and Ole Kristian Bryhn, who scored a total of 3495 points. The Russian Federation, with Kamenskiy and Nsazar Louginets in final, and their teammate Vlasov Fedor, finished in third with 3494 points.