Zhu (CHN) beat Sidi (HUN) to win the first Gold of the ISSF World Cup in Maribor, Slovenia

The ISSF World Cup in Rifle and Pistol events in Maribor was opened by today's 10m Air Rifle Men event, won by the 2004 Olympic Champ and 2008 Olympic Silver medallist Zhu Qinan, of the People's Republic of China. Peter Sidi (HUN) and Milutin Stefanovic (SRB) joined him on the podium.

The fourth leg of this year's ISSF World Cup Series kicked off in Maribor, Slovenia, just two days after the closing of the previous world cup stage in Munich, Germany.

600 athletes coming from 59 nations arrived here to compete in the 10 Olympic Shooting Rifle and Pistol events, from June 15 through June 20.

The 2004 Olympic Champion Zhu Qinan, 29, from the People's Republic of China, won the 10m Air Rifle Men final, the first medal match of the event.

The 29-year old Chinese champion secured the brightest medal with 207.6 points, after leading the group since the first shots. With his last two shots (10.7 and 10.0) he beat the reigning World Champion Peter Sidi of Hungary, 31, who placed in second with 206.2 points.

“I have been waiting for Zhu to fire his last shot, before triggering mine. I wanted to know how much I needed to score to reach him.” Sidi said, explaining why he had been waiting for so long before firing his last shot. “That turned out to be an impossible task: I needed to shoot a 10.9 to tie him. And I had not shot one single 10.9 during the whole day. With only 18 seconds left after Zhu's shot, I quickly fired a 9.5, and that was all.”

Sidi, the reigning world champion of the 10m Air Rifle event, is working on the most important match of the season. “I am preparing for the ISSF World Championship in Granada. Like everybody else I guess. But I am walking into the competition as the title holder, and I want to defend it.” He said.

“It won't be easy, with the new rules. I will try my best, and I will be taking part in the next world cup stage in Beijing as part of my preparation: I need to fine-tune my equipment.”

“I have changed my shooting jacket and other details. That costed me a lot of points at the last world cup in Munich, but all should be fine by the time I will compete in the World Championship.”

Today's Bronze medal went to Serbia's 29-year old Milutin Stefanovic, who scored 184.2 points to step on the podium for the second time this year, after pocketing a Silver medal at the first world cup leg of the season in Fort Benning.

Follow the forthcoming medal matches of Maribor's ISSF World Cup at www.issf-sports.org