ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol · Munich, GER

The two athletes dueled right to the last shot to secure the brightest medal at the third stage of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series.

The 2018 ISSF World Cup in Rifle and PIstol events held in Munich, Germany, continued today with the men’s 10m Air Rifle final.

In a crowded final hall at the 1972 Olympics shooting range, Belarus’ Illia Charheika claimed the first world cup gold medal of his career with 249.5 points.

The 25-year old shooter, ranked 18th in the world in this event, had gained two European Championship junior titles in 2010 and 2011, as well as a Youth Olympic Games Silver in 2010.

Today, he beat Rio 2016 Bronze medalist Vladimir Maslennikov by 0.7 points. The 23-year old Russian shooter finished in second place with 248.8 points, claiming his second world cup silver medal of the season, following a podium placement in Changwon.

Chinese Taipei’s Lu Shao-Chuan, taking part in his first world cup final match, survived a shoot-off against Croatia’s Peter Gorsa to climb on the podium. With 227.9 points, the 21-year old athlete collected the bronze medal, leaving his Croatian opponents in fourth with 206.9 points.

Milenko Sebic of Serbia took the 5th place with 186.0 points, finishing ahead of Russia’s Sergey Kamenskiy (who had won Silver at yesterday’s 50m Rifle 3 Position match), 6th with 164.3 points, today.

Austria’s Martin Strempfl and Slovakia’s Patrik Jany closed in 6th and 7th place, with 143.9 and 121.1 points, respectively.

The ISSF World Cup in Munich, which sees 817 athletes from 84 nations competing in the 10 Olympic rifle and pistol shooting events, will continue tomorrow, 27th of May, with three more medal events.

The women’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions final will start at 12.30 (GMT+1). The women’s 10m Air Pistol final will follow at 14.15, while the men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol match will close day-4 of this world cup stage at 16.30.

Watch all the final matches live at www.issf-sports.org