An exciting duel between Finland’s Cristian Friman and Romania’s Dragomir Iordache opened the competition in Suhl (GER), where the ISSF Junior World Championship Rifle/Pistol awarded its first title in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event.
The Finnish 17-year-old, who competed in Suhl at last year’s Junior World Cup, where he place 27th, chased Iordache in the first section of the match, overtaking him in the middle of an outstanding series of 12 consecutive 10s. Iordache, however, nailed an impressive 10.8 with his second-to-last shot, definitely closing the gap with a 10.0 and matching his rival’s final score of 246.4 points.
In the decisive shoot-off, Friman finally hit back into the 10th ring and claimed the Junior Gold medal with a 10.4, while Iordache nailed a disappointing 9.8 and finished in 2nd place.
People’s Republic of China’s 20-year-old Liu Yukun, currently ranked 8th in the world in this event, completed the podium in 3rd position, scoring 225.5 points. The Junior Bronze it’s his second medal this season, after the Silver one he claimed at the ISSF World Cup Stage 1 in New Delhi (IND).
Just outside of the medal positions, Austria’s Stefan Wadlegger (17) sealed his international debut with the 4th place, scoring 203.0 points and missing the podium by 1.5.
He was followed by his 18-year-old teammate Andreas Thum, who took 5th place with 182.5 points, and by first-time participant Jon Hermann Hegg (18) of Norway, who concluded in 6th place with 159.3.
Leaving the match after shot number 12, Norway’s 19-year-old Henrik Larsen placed 8th with 118.9 points, while United States’ first-time participant Jared Evan Desrosiers (20) joined him a couple of shots later, after losing a tie-breaking shoot-off against Hegg and finishing in 7th place with 139.5 points.
On the team podium, Austria pocketed the Gold and wrote a new Team World Record Junior; Norway secured the Silver, while the Russian Federation placed in 3rd position.
The ISSF Junior World Championship Rifle/Pistol will continue tomorrow with three more finals: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women at 11:45 am (UTC+2:00), the 10m Air Pistol Men at 3:30 pm and the 10m Air Pistol Women at 5:50 pm.
All finals will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results of the competitions, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.