3rd Youth Olympic Games · Buenos Aires, ARG

The Russian 18-year-old shooter climbed on the highest step of the 10m Air Rifle Men podium at the end of a thrilling final, prevailing over India’s 16-year-old Shahu Tushar Mane and Serbia’s Aleksa Mitrovic, who respectively took silver and bronze.

The first gold medal of the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games was awarded in the 10m Air Rifle Men event, where Russian Federation’s Grigorii Shamakov secured the brightest medal with the score of 249.2 points.

¡La primera medalla de los Juegos!#TiroDeportivo - Carabina de aire comprimido 10m hombres#ShootingSport -10m Air Rifle Men

Oro SHAMAKOV, Grigorii - RUS
Plata MANE, Shahu Tushar - IND @ioaindia
Bronce MITROVIC, Aleksa - SRB @ISSF_Shooting pic.twitter.com/salPoYV12E
— Buenos Aires 2018 (@BuenosAires2018) October 7, 2018

The talented 18-year-old — who won junior bronze in this event at last month’s ISSF World Championship in Changwon (KOR) — secured the Youth Olympic title with a fantastic pair of conclusive shots: after Serbia’s Aleksa Mitrovic was eliminated in 3rd place, in fact, Shamakov was only 0.1-point ahead of India’s Shahu Tushar Mane. There, the Russian talent fired an impressive 10.4-10.7 combo, besting Mane and claiming the first international gold medal of his young career.

Mane eventually won silver with 247.5 points, while Mitrovic completed the podium and took bronze with 227.9.

Pala je prva medalja za #TeamSerbia u @BuenosAires2018! Naš Aleksa Mitrović je osvojio BRONZU u streljaštvu, u disciplini vazdušna puška, i tako na pravi način otvorio sezonu lova na medalje na ovim @youtholympics! Bravo Aleksa, ponosni smo! #FeelTheFuture #YouthOlympics
— Team Serbia (@OKSrbije) October 7, 2018

Placing just outside of the medal positions, 18-year-old Zhang Changhong of the People’s Republic of China — junior gold medalist in this event at the 2017 Asian Championship in Wako City (JPN) — finished in 4th place with 205.6 points, 1.1 behind Mitrovic at the moment of the elimination.

Zhang concluded the match ahead of Australia’s Alex Chresten Hoberg and Germany’s Maximilian Ulbrich: the 16-year-old Aussie placed 5th with 183.9 points, while the 17-year-old German youngster finished 6th with 162.9.

Despite qualifying for the final with the highest score, Islamic Republic of Iran’s Amirsiyavash Zolfagharian (17) left the contest after only 12 shots, taking 8th place with 119.9 points. Two shots later, he was followed by Austria’s Stefan Wadlegger (18), who signed off in 7th position with 141.3 points.

Shooting sport at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games will award another title tomorrow, as the 10m Air Rifle Women final is going to take place at 11:15 am (UTC-3:00).

News results and updates about the 3rd edition of the Youth Olympic Gameswill be available on the ISSF website, at buenosaires2018.com and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.