The first title of today’s schedule at the ISSF Running Target World Championship in Suhl was assigned in the 10m Running Target Men event, where Lukasz Czapla of Poland pocketed his eighth World Championship title.
Czapla, 33, qualified with the third best score of the event, facing and beating Czech Republic’s Bedrich Jonas in the semifinal, where he came back from a 3-point deficit.
In the following Gold medal match Czapla, who never won a World Championship Gold in this event before, prevailed over Pak Myong Won of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, at the end of a head-to-head match that concluded with the score of 10 points to 8 in Czapla’s favour.
“I was a bit lucky in the qualifications, cause I didn’t shoot very well, but I made it to the top-4 anyway and managed to best both of my rivals,” said Czapla at the end of his medal match. “I dedicated this medal to my wife who is here with me, and to my two daughters that were watching me from home.”
In the Bronze medal match Bedrich bested Finland’s Tomi-Pekka Heikkila with an uncontested 6-to-2 points win, securing his second World Championship medal as a senior.
On the team’s podium Finland secured the Gold medals thanks to the 1718 points scored by Tomi-Pekka Heikkila, Heikki Lahdekorpi and Krister Holmberg, who was followed in 2nd position by Sweden’s Emil Martinsson, Jesper Nyberg and Niklas Bergstroem. The team Bronze medal went to the Russian Federation’s Dmitry Romanov, Mikhail Azarenko and Maxim Stepanov.
The ISSF Running Target World Championship will continue tomorrow with the 10m Running Target Mixed Men event and the 10m Running Target Mixed Men Junior.
News and updates about the ISSF Running Target World Championship will be available on the ISSF website and on the Federation’s social media profiles: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Weibo.