Poland’s Tomasz Bartnik led the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Position event throughout the three positions and right to the last shot, to win the world title with 3 points of advantage on his followers. His final score of 460.4 points turned out to be unbeatable for his opponents, who fought for the medals and the four Olympic quota places on stake at today’s final.
Bartnik had never won an ISSF gold medal, before. The 28-year old shooter from Warsaw had placed in 52nd at the 2010 ISSF World Championship in Munich. Today, he walked into the final ranked 14th in the world, after making it into a series of world cup final matches and winning a world cup bronze throughout the last two years.
“In the last two years I have been working on my mental training,” he said after the final.
“I have always been able to shoot good tens. But I was getting nervous, stressed and then missing, during competitions.”
“Now I learned how to live in the moment, and how not to think too much during a match. That has really stepped up my game.”
“That’s how I went through today’s competition: totally focused in the now. I don’t even remember all of the shots, it just happened.”
Along with the world title, Bartnik secured a quota place for Tokyo 2020.
“Winning a world championship title and a quota place is a dream that comes true. Especially because I missed it out in the previous Olympic cycles. I have never made it to the Olympics.”
Croatia’s Petar Gorsa followed him in second place with 457.4 points, claiming his second silver medal here in Changwon, after begging a podium spot and an Olympic quota place in the 10m Air Rifle Men event, earlier this week.
Gorsa said:
“Winning two world championship silver medals back to back in two different events is just amazing.”
“I started-off by struggling in the kneeling fraction of the final, and I started recovering in the Prone position shots. But it was the Standing that lifted me up in the scoreboard.”
“I am a Standing position specialist, and I knew that by doing everything right I could shoot a good match. It happened before.”
Today’ bronze medal went to USA’s Michael McPhail, a 36-year old prone shooting specialist, who had been focusing on 3 positions shooting as prone was scrapped from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic program in favor of Mixed Team events.
His efforts paid off today, as he won his very first ISSF medal in this event, also securing an Olympic quota place for his country in the run-up to the Tokyo Games.
The American shooter built up his success on a strong Prone position, and outscored Norway’s Henrik Larsen, who finished in fourth with 437.0 points, claiming a Tokyo 2020 quota place.
As Gorsa had already won an Olympic qualification spot in the air rifle event, the fourth quota place up for grabs at today’s final was awarded to the 2014 air rifle world champion Yang Haoran of the People’s Republic of China, who closed today’s match in 5th with 427.4 points. He was followed by his teammate Hui Zicheng (6th with 416.4 points), Belarus’ Vitali Bubnovich (7th with 401.4 points) and by Australia’s Dane Sampson (8th with 401.0 points).