ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol / Shotgun · Changwon, KOR

Rio 2016 Silver medalist said the new range of Changwon, where the next World Championship will be held, is “excellent and well built”, after winning a world cup gold medal with 460.6 points, today.

The 2018 ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Changwon, Republic of Korea, keeps on rolling. Some 800 athletes coming from 70 countries are here to compete in the 15 Olympic shooting events, and to test the venue that will be used for the 52nd ISSF World Championship in all shooting events, in September.

Day-5 of the competition opened with the men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions final, won by Rio 2016 Olympic Silver medalist Sergey Kamenskiy of the Russian Federation.

The 30-year old shooter started-off the final with 153.7 points in the Kneeling position, which he closed in second place. He then moved in the lead with 310.0 points after the Prone position. In the Standing, he added 150.6 points to his score, closing atop of the podium with a total tally of 460.6 points.

Kamenskiy beat Italy’s five-time Olympian Marco De Nicolo, 41, who followed today’s winner in second place with 459.0 points.

21-year old Istvan Peni of Hungary, a bronze medallist at last year’s ISSF World Cup final, scored a 9.2 on his last Standing shot to finish in third place with 448.2 points, jut 0.4 behind De Nicolo at the time of the elimination. With a total of 448.2 points he claimed his second world cup Bronze of the season.

“I was really concentrated and confident, today. I tried to do my best, and the final went just great.” Today’s winner Kamenskiy, said after the match.

“The conditions were perfect. The wind was not too annoying, the temperature was great,” he continued. “The new shooting range itself is excellent: both the qualifications and the final hall are very very well built, and the lighting is state of art.

“Technically, everything was easy today. Mentally, there was a lot of pressure into the game: this is a world cup event, this is a test for the world championship, everybody wants to shoot good scores here.”

Following the medallists, USA’s Matthew Emmons survived a shoot-off against Belarus’ Yury Shcherbatsevich after shot #42, but was then eliminated one shot later, placing in fourth with 436.2 points, ahead of the same Shcherbatsevich, fifth with 426.7 points.

At the same time, local media’s spotlights were on the home athlete, Kim Jonghyun, who finished in seventh place with 404.8 points. Kim had started the match in the best way, leading the Kneeling position with 153.9 points. He kept in touch with the top of the scoreboard throughout the Prone position, just a few tenths behind Kamenskiy, with 310.0 points. But with two Standing series of 46.6 and 48.2 points he slid down, closing the match behind Petar Gorsa of Croatia (6th with 416.4 points). He left the match at the first elimination, along with India’s Sanjeev Rajput, who placed in 8th with 395.7 points after firing a shot in the 6th ring on his last Standing series.