In the one and only event scheduled for today in Fort Benning (USA), Germany’s Julian Justus pocketed the men’s 10m Air Rifle gold medal, climbing atop the ISSF World Cup podium for the second time in his career.
Indeed, the German 30-year-old had won gold in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event eight years ago, but then decided to concentrare on a single event.
“After the World Championship in Granada I put all my efforts and my focus in the Air Rifle event,” said Justus after the award ceremony. “And now it feels great to be finally on top of the podium. I think the plan worked!”
Justus shot with great consistency all along the match, missing the 10th ring with only one of his 24 shots and definitely taking the lead at the end of the seventh series, when his main rival — Finland’s 26-year-old Juho Kurki fired a disappointing 95.-9-8 combination. There, the German shooter born in Giessen were able to maintain the top position for the two remaining rounds, finishing on the highest step of the podium with 248.7 points.
“Now I’ll compete in Air Rifle in Munich,” he concluded. “And then I’ll try to win the trials for the upcoming ISSF World Championship in South Korea.”
1.6-point behind Justus, Kurki won the first World Cup medal of his career, scoring 247.1 points.
The podium was completed by Hungary’s 21-year-old Istvan Peni, who climbed atop the World Cup podium for the sixth time out of six events this season, adding another bronze to his collection and signing off with 226.5 points.
Firing a disappointing 8.8 in his 20th shot, Peni’s teammate Peter Sidi slipped out of the medal positions, falling from the 2nd to the 4th place, where he finished his final with 205.4 points.
The experienced 39-year-old shooter preceded Norway’s 20-year-old Henrik Larsen — participating in his second final match at the ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, after he placed 5th in yesterday’s 3 Positions event.
The young Norwegian shooter took 5th position once again, scoring 184.9 points and besting the 17th place he obtained in his only previous Air Rifle participation.
Yao Yuncong of the People’s Republic of China, Petr Nymbursky (22) of the Czech Republic and Brian Baudouin of France finished in the bottom three positions.
The 22-year-old Chinese placed 6th with 163.2 points, while Nymbursky — who also participated in yesterday’s 3 Positions final, placing 8th — concluded in 7th with 141.7. The French 23-year-old, finally, finished at the bottom of the table, scoring 120.3 points and missing the 10th ring with five of his 12 shots.
Medal standings after 5 out of 10 events
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | CHN |
2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |
| 2 | HUN |
1 | 1 | 2 | |
| 3 | BUL |
1 | 1 | ||
| 3 | GER |
1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | DEN |
1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | FIN |
1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | SRB |
1 | 1 | ||
| 8 | ESP |
1 | 1 | ||
| 8 | GRE |
1 | 1 | ||
| 5 | 5 | 5 | 15 |
The ISSF World Cup Stage 3 in Fort Benning (USA) will continue tomorrow with three more finals: the 10m Air Pistol Women, taking place at 11:15 am (UTC-4:00), the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women, taking place at 1:00 pm, and the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men, scheduled at 3:15 pm.
The match will be streamed live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results, 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.