The last day of the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning (USA) started-off with the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Final.
The match finished in an unexpected way, as Kazakhstan's Yuriy Yurkov – ranked 50th in the world – beat world's #2 Zhu Qinan of the People's Republic of China at the last shot, winning Gold and a Rio 2016 Olympic Quota Place.
Yurkov – who had never compete in an ISSF world cup final round before – scored 456.3 points at the end of a consistent final. He started-off with 151.1 points in the Kneeling series, and then continued with 156.7 points in the Prone position, to finish with 148.5 points in the Standing.
Today's stands out as Yurkov best achievement in career, in ISSF world cup events: his best placement so far had been a 9th place, back in 2008.
“I am very happy about this result. I still don't know if I will participate in the Olympic Games, as there will be an internal competition to select the Kazakh Olympic team.” Said Yurkov.
The 2004 Air Rifle Olympic Champion and reigning Rifle 3 Positions world champion Zhu Qinan (30) led the match until the last shot, when he fired a disappointing 7.5 that landed him in second place with a total of 455.3 points. An 8.6 would have been enough to win the match.
The last Standing shot turned out to be crucial also for the home flag-bearer, USA's Matthew Emmons, the 2004 50m Rifle Prone Men Olympic champion.
Emmons duelled against Zhu Qinan for the leadership throughout the whole match. First he climbed the scoreboard up to the second place with 308.5 points at the end of the Prone series. Then took the lead of the match after the first Standing series. But an unlucky 8.9 last shot pushed him down in third place, where he closed the final with 445.0 points. Today's was Emmons' third world cup medal of the season, following the Gold and the Silver he claimed in Changwon, one month ago.
8.9 was also the score of Daniel Brodmeier's last shot. The 27-year old German finalist scored 435.9 points taking the fourth place. He was followed by Hungary's four-time Olympian Peter Sidi (36), fifth with 424.8 points.
Today's final turned into a bitter-sweet match for Japan's 38-year old Yamashita Toshikazu, who did not make it to the medals in spite of leading the match until the first Standing series, but on the other side secured a Rio 2016 Quota place by finishing in sixth with 414.3 points.
The last match of the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning, the 10m Air Pistol Men final, will take place at 15.00 (GMT-4). Watch the final live on www.issf-sports.org