ISSF

Published on 03 Nov 2008

50m Pistol Men – Olympic Champion JIN Jong Oh wins the World Cup Final

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Marco Dalla Dea

The Olympic Champion of Beijing JIN Jong Oh keeps on winning. The Korean athlete shot Gold with ease at the ISSF World Cup Final of Bangkok, leading the 50m Pistol match since the qualifications. MATSUDA won Silver, gaining the second medal to his country Japan. Bronze to the Russian master Vladimir ISAKOV.

The Olympic multi-medallist of Beijing, the 29-year old Korean Pistol shooter JIN Jong Oh, won the 50m Pistol Men event at the ISSF World Cup Final in Bangkok. The Korean shooter, recently awarded Olympic Champion in this event, walked into the competition as the favourite, and did not delude the expectations. JIN passed through the qualifications with the highest score, 570 points, and conducted an excellent final ending up in first place winning Gold with a total score of 667.2 points.
JIN had never won an ISSF World Cup Final, before. The Korean shooter had qualified for the 2007 edition of this elite competition, held here in Bangkok as well, but he had missed the podium ending up in seventh place.

Tomoyuki MATSUDA won today’s second medal for Japan, grabbing Silver a few tenths behind JIN. The 32-year old shooter, who had qualified by winning this year’s World Cup stage of Munich, shot a qualification of 566 points, climbing then the scoreboard to finish in second place with a total of 655.5 points. MATSUDA had never took part in a World Cup Final before, and this has probably been his best season, which saw him shooting also in the Olympic final round of Beijing.

Bronze went to the Olympic Bronze medallist of the 2008 Games, Vladimir ISAKOV, 38, from Russia, a long experienced shooter who had won the 2006 World Cup Final held in Granada. ISAKOV had to fight along the first final shots against the Italian athlete Francesco BRUNO. The two shooters had started with the same qualification score of 562 points, and kept on shooting almost tied right to the fifth competition shot, when BRUNO fired a disappointing 6.3 shot putting himself out of the games for the medals. “I did not control that shot. It was so humid that my finger just slipped out…” explained the Italian shooter, who eventually landed in sixth place.
In the mean time, ISAKOV shot one of the highest scores in the final, 98.5 points, finishing on the podium to be awarded Bronze with a total score of 660.5 points.

The title defender, the Chinese shooter LIN Zhongzai, finished the qualifications in ninth place, and did not take part in the final round. The second Chinese finalist, the 22-year old PANG Wei, closed the match in fifth place, preceded by the long-course pistol shooter Joao COSTA of Portugal, fourth today.