It took 46 shots to award China’s Liu Yukun with his first junior world title

terça-feira, 27 de junho de 2017

It took 46 shots to award China’s Liu Yukun with his first junior world title

Final 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men Junior

ISSF Junior World Championship Rifle / Pistol · Suhl, GER

The Chinese Rifle shooter pocketed the second medal of his Junior World Championship, adding the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Gold to the 10m Air Rifle Men Silver he claimed one day earlier. Czech Republic’s Filip Nepejchal and Norway’s Henrik Larsen also climbed on the podium, respectively taking Silver and Bronze.

After missing the Air Rifle Gold by just one-tenth of a point less than 24 hours before, Liu Yukun of the People’s Republic of China finally grabbed his first junior world title in Suhl, prevailing over Czech Republic’s Filip Nepejchal in a thrilling finale.

The Chinese 20-year-old, who was sitting in 6th place after the kneeling series and in 2nd at the end of the prone ones, saw Nepejchal come back with some great shooting in the standing position, and found him just 0.3 points behind at the 40th shot mark.

Since then, the two youngsters shot neck-to-neck all along the standing series, with the Czech 17-year-old matching Liu’s score of 456.4 points with a great 10.5 in his 45th shot. In the following and decisive tiebreaker, Liu once again hit the 10th ring, nailing a 10.3 that Nepejchal failed to beat and climbing atop the Junior World Championship podium.

Norway’s 19-year-old Henrik Larsen, who was leading the final at the end of the prone shooting, concluded in 3rd place, claiming the Bronze medal with 445.4 points.

Failing to match the 3rd place he obtained in yesterday’s 10m Air Rifle Men, Croatia’s Borna Petanjek placed just outside of the podium, taking 4th place and scoring 433.7 points.

Two Hungarian athletes followed Petanjek, as 19-year-old first-time finalist Peter Vas slid down one position after firing a disappointing 7.4 in his 42nd shot, finishing in 5th place with 422.6 points, while his teammate and current number 17 in the World Ranking, 20-year-old Istvan Peni, finished in 6th with 412.4 points.

Italy’s Riccardo Armiraglio (20) and Hungary’s third final participant, Zalan Pekler (17), didn’t match the high pace of the final, being eliminated after shot number 40: the Italian shooter placed 7th, scoring 399.3 points, while Pekler took 8th position with 396.7.

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