An 18-year old first-time participant from the People’s Republic of China - Qian Xuechao - beat Olympic and world champions at today’s 10m Air Rifle Men Final, the opening event of the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany.
The young athlete scored an exceptional result - 210.6 points - to beat some of the best shooters of the world. A score that broke the final world record of 210.5 p.ts as well as the junior final world record of 209.8 p.ts, both held by his teammate Yang Haoran.
On his way to the highest step of the podium, Qian upset his teammate Cao Yifei, 27, ranked second in the world in this event. After winning a Silver medal at the last ISSF World Cup in Rio de Janeiro, Cao secured today’s Silver with 208.3 points, a strong score, but not enough to match Qian records.
The 2010 Youth Olympic Games bronze medalist Serhiy Kulish of the Ukraine (23) fought shoulder and shoulder against the two Chinese teammates, taking the lead after the first two competition series, and then sliding down in third place where he landed with a score of 186.8, securing his second world cup bronze in career, four years after the first one which he earned in Milan in 2012.
At the beginning of the final, it was Italy’s 2012 50m Rifle Three Positions Olympic Champion Niccolo Campriani (28) the first to be eliminated with 79.2 points after the eighth shot. Campriani won his last world cup medal in this event in 2014.
Today’s turned into an upsetting match also for the current world rank #1, Yang Haoran of the People’s Republic of China: first he was eliminated after the 10th shot - leaving the competition in seventh place with 101.5 points - and then he lost his world record, which was overwritten by Qian’s exceptional score.
Yang is one of the favorites in the lead up to the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Starting from his victory at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games and passing through his success at the Asian Games in Incheon and at the 2014 ISSF World Championship in Granada, Yang has won everything he could, including seven ISSF World Cup medals. But during the last two world cup events he did not shoot at his usual pace, missing the podium both in Rio de Janeiro - where he placed in 5th - and here in Munich, today.
Jung Ji Geun, 26, from the Republic of Korea followed him, leaving the match at shot 12 in sixth place with 121.9 points. Serbia’s Milutin Stefanovic, 31 - who had won a World Cup Final bronze medal here in Munich, last year - took today’s 5th place 143.5 points. Also the home hero, the German rifle shooter Julian Justus, did not make it to the podium. The 28-year old finalist had placed in fourth at the last ISSF World Cup stage in Rio de Janeiro, and the same he did today, closing the competition behind the three medalists with 165.3 points.
The 2016 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Munich - where 738 athletes coming from 88 countries are competing from today right to the 25th of May - will continue this afternoon with the 10m Air Rifle Women final, to be conducted at 17.00 (GMT+1). All final matches will be broadcasted live on www.issf-sports.org