One after the other. Jin Jongoh secured his second world cup gold medal back to back, today. The South-Korean reigning Olympic Champion claimed the 10m Air Pistol Men final at the ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, USA, just one month after winning the same event at the first Rifle and Pistol World Cup leg of the season on his home turf, in Changwon.
Jin, ranked first in the world in this event, in which he also holds the current world record, did not leave many chances to his opponents.
Shooting consistently throughout the whole match, he easily moved atop of the scoreboard after the first three shots, and kept the leadership until the end.
Jin's final score of 202.0 points indeed turned out to be unreachable for today's Silver medallist, the 2004 Olympic Bronze medallist Vladimir Isakov of the Russian Federation (45), who scored 199.9 points finishing in second place 2.1 points behind the Korean winner.
“Two gold medals back to back is a good result, especially because this year I have changed pistol.” Jin said after the final. “I used to shoot with a Steyr, but since the last world cup I switched to Morini. Both are good pistols, but I was looking for new motivations. After many years I needed that.” The five-time Olympic medallist said.
“I won't be competing in the next two world cup stages.” He added, talking about his preparations on the road leading to Rio 2016. “I will be competing at Asian level, and then I will shoot the ISSF World Cup Final in Munich later this year. This season is mostly a preparation for the Olympics, I am working to be ready in 2016.”
Following Jin and Isakov, today's Bronze medal went to Portugal's 50-year old Joao Costa, a four-time Olympian, who scored 178.4 points today, claiming an Olympic pass for Rio.
The other two Olympic Quotas assigned today went to the 2014 European Champion Oleh Omelchuk of Ukraine (31) – fourth with 157.3 points – and to Ismail Keles of Turkey (27) – fifth with 137.1 points. Mai Jiajie of the People's Republic of China (27), missed the Quota, placing in sixth with 116.7 points.
The 2010 Asian Games champion, Jin's teammate Lee Daemyung (26), was the first to be eliminated after the 8th final shot, taking 8th place with 77.8 points. He was followed by USA's Will Brown (23), who lost a shoot-off for the lowest-raking finalist to be eliminated against Ismail Keles after the tenth shot, and took seventh place with 97.2 points.
The 10m Air Pistol Men final concluded the 2015 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning, USA, where more than 600 shooters representing 76 nations competed from the 13th through the 18th of May to secure world cup final's points and the 24 Rio 2016 Olympic Quota places up for grabs.
The ISSF World Cup Series moves now on to Munich, Germany, where the next world cup leg will be hosted from the 26th of May through the 2nd of June. The first medals will be assigned on the 28th of May, when the 10m Air Rifle Men and Women finals will be held. Follow the next events live on www.issf-sports.org