Published on 24 Sep 2024

FISU Foundations: Campriani starts gold run at 2008 World University Championships Shooting Sport event in Beijing

issf-logo
ISSF

As New Delhi prepares to host the eighth FISU (International University Sports Federation) Championships dedicated to shooting sport, from November 9 to 13, ISSF looks back at how stars have emerged from past editions. The second edition took place in Beijing a couple of months after the 2008 Olympics had been held there and attracted numerous athletes who had competed at the Games.

Italy’s 20-year-old Niccolo Campriani produced an early marker in his outstanding career at the 2008 World University Championships Shooting Sport event in Beijing.

Campriani’s gold medal in the 10m air rifle men came two years before he won the 2010 world title in that event.

Two years later at the London Olympics Campriani (pictured) won 10m air rifle silver and 50m rifle 3 positions gold.

At the Rio 2016 Games Campriani, who now combines competing with coaching, retained his air rifle title and went one better in the 3 positions.

The second edition of this dedicated FISU event involved numerous athletes who had competed at the Beijing Games held a couple of months earlier, attracting 306 contestants - 162 men and 144 women - from 28 countries.

According to FISU’s technical delegate for sport shooting, Ivana Ertlova, the competition was comparable to that of an ISSF World Championship or a European Championship.

This edition also proved particularly significant for Slovakian athletes.

Gold in the trap men event went to Slovakia’s Marian Kovacocy, who had won the world junior title in 2001. A three-times Olympian, he went on to win world gold the following year, adding world silver last year.

In the skeet women Kovacocy’s compatriot Danka Bartekova earned a second silver behind Oana Bianca Lupan of Cyprus, with her twin sister Lenka finishing ninth..

Now 39, Danka has competed at the last five Olympics, earning bronze at the London 2012 Games. Last year, having won four world bronzes, she took gold in Baku.