Russia's Kamenskiy won his first 50m Rifle 3 Position medal at the last shot

The 26-year old shooter won his very first world cup medal in Maribor, Slovenia, beating the Chinese finalist Cao at the last shot. “My father Igor will be happy: he has been my first coach.”

Sergey Kamenskiy, from the Russian Federation, won the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event final, the last match of the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia.

Kamenskiy secured his very first ISSF Gold medal with an overall score of 459.7 points, and 0.2 points of advantage on the Silver medallist, China's Cao Yifei.

The last shot turned the final in favor of the 26-year old Russian shooter. Kamenskiy shot a fair 9.8, while his Chinese opponents marked a disappointing 8.2 placing himself in second.

The 2006 Junior Wold Champion Cao, 26, had led the qualifications, and finished the Kneeling and the Prone series of the final match in the lead. Entering the Standing series with 4.0 points of head-start on his followers, he wasted his advantage throughout his last five shots.

“I have been lucky. Cao made a mistake on his last shot, and I caught him up.” Kamenskiy said, after the final.

“My father will be so happy: he has been my first coach. He showed me how to shoot when I was only 9-year old. This is my first world cup gold medal and it's for him.” The Russian shooter added.

“My hand was shaking today. I was definitely nervous, going into the final. But the more I shot good scores, the more I gained confidence, and finally I made it.”

On his way to the highest step of the podium, Kamenskiy left behind him also the 26-year old German shooter Daniel Brodmeier, who took today's Bronze with 449.0 points.

The German finalist climbed up the scoreboard during the Standing series, overtaking the 2004 Air Rifle Olympic Champion Zhu Qinan of the People's Republic of China, who finished in fourth with 438.4 points. Zhu was followed by his teammate Kang Hongwei, fifth with 428.3 points, and by the London 2012 Olympic Bronze medallist Matthew Emmons, sixth with 415.9 points, today.

The first two shooters who had to leave today's elimination-style final match were Russia's Fedor Vlasov and Norway's Ole Magnus Bakken, who placed seventh and eighth with 405.5 and 399.4 points, respectively.

The 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men final closed the 2014 ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events in Maribor, Slovenia. The next – and last – ISSF World Cup leg of the year will take place in Beijing, China, starting from July 2.