ISSF

Published on 12 Aug 2015

China wins gold, silver, and two quotas at Gabala's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

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Alessandro Ceschi

At the men's Rapid Fire Pistol in Gabala, China took the first two spots on the podium, and the two Olympic quotas available.

China won two medals and two quotas in Gabala today, the World Cup's fifth competition day.


In the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol, Hu Haozhe and Lao Jiajie ruled the game. They won, respectively, gold and silver medals; both also gained Olympic quota places for Rio 2016.


Hu (27) and Lao (25) were tied in first until the final shot. Then, a perfect 5-hit round gave Hu the first World Cup gold in his career (final score: 32 hits).


Lao, the silver medalist, scored 30 hits and stepped for the first time onto a World Cup podium.


Neither Hu nor Lao, the event's quota-winners, have ever taken part in any edition of the Olympic Games.


France's Boris Artaud (25) won the bronze, his career's first World Cup medal. He scored 25 hits.


The Republic of Korea's Kim Jun Hong came in fourth, as he scored 20 hits. On the fifth spot came India's Gurpreet Singh (27), who scored 14 hits.


After losing a shoot-off to Lao, USA's Keith Sanderson (40) came in sixth with 12 hits.


"I thank the ISSF, and the Azerbaijani [Organizing] Committee," Hu says, "for [preparing] such a good competition for the athletes."


In his last three rounds, Hu didn't miss a single shot--he scored 15 out of 15 hits. He did it, he says, by playing the way he knows.


"I was just doing my thing," says Hu. "I think less, and do more."

Medal standings

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1 CHN 4 2 1 7
2 USA 2 2 0 4
3 RUS 1 1 1 3
4 IRI 1 0 1 2
5 ITA 1 0 1 2
6 KOR 0 2 1 3
7 GBR 0 1 1 2
8 AUT 0 1 0 1
9 CRO 0 0 1 1
10 CZE 0 0 1 1
11 FRA 0 0 1 1
9 9 9 27