Petar Gorsa of Croatia won his first world cup gold, today, as he triumphed in the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions event at the ISSF World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Gorsa (28) led the kneeling series with 154.0 points, and slid down in second during the prone series of the final, with 308.4 points. He climbed back again up in the lead through the standing series, finishing atop of the podium with 457.5 points.
The Croatian shooter, ranked 9th in the world, had successfully participated in last year’s European Games held on the same range here in Baku, finishing in second behind France’s Valeriane Sauveplane (who did not compete today).
Gorsa won today’s match with a small margin of 0.6 points over India’s 35-year old Sanjeev Rajput, who claimed silver with 456.9 points after finishing the kneeling series with 153.5 points and the prone series with 307.6 points.
His victory brought Croatia’s gold medals counter up to two, following yesterday’s victory of Snejana Pejcic, and lifted the country atop of the intermediate medals standings when 14 out of 15 events have been conducted.
Republic of Korea’s Kim Hyeonjun (23) took the Bronze with 445.5 points, marking his best world cup finish in career with a great result in the standings series. The Korean athlete had indeed closed in 8th and last place both the kneeling and the prone fractions of the match, climbing then up in third place with a series of great 10s.
On his way to the medal, Kim bested Li Jiahong of the People’s Republic of China (30), who placed in 4th with 434.1 points, Peter Sidi of Hungary (5th with 424.5 pts), Oleh Tsarkov of the Ukraine (6th with 413.2 pts), Gernot Rumpler of Austria (7th with 403.5 pts) and Finland’s Juho Kurki (8th with 402.8 pts).
Medal standings
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CRO |
2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 2 | CHN |
1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| 3 | KOR |
1 | 6 | 7 | |
| 4 | BRA |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | BUL |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | CZE |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | DEN |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | FIN |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | GER |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | MLT |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | SMR |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | UKR |
1 | 1 | ||
| 4 | USA |
1 | 1 | ||
| 14 | ITA |
2 | 2 | 4 | |
| 15 | GRE |
2 | 2 | ||
| 15 | IND |
2 | 2 | ||
| 17 | AUT |
1 | 1 | ||
| 17 | GBR |
1 | 1 | ||
| 17 | IRI |
1 | 1 | ||
| 17 | LIB |
1 | 1 | ||
| 17 | SVK |
1 | 1 | ||
| 22 | ISR |
1 | 1 | ||
| 22 | MEX |
1 | 1 | ||
| 22 | POL |
1 | 1 | ||
| 14 | 14 | 14 | 42 |