The 2010 ISSF World Champion, Japanese shooter Tomoyuki Matsuda, claimed the Gold medal
in the 50m Pistol Men event, prevailing over Silver medallist Kim Song Guk, of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, after a thrilling match.
The seventh series of the final turned out to be crucial for both Matsuda and Kim, as the North Korean athlete hit a disappointing 6.7-9.2 combination, squandering the advantage he was holding on his Japanese rival.
Since then, instead, Matsuda shot excellently, building his own advantage and leading the match until its final shot, where he concluded with a fantastic 10.8 and the final score of 191.6 points.
Despite finishing 2nd with 185.8 points, Kim Song Guk and his teammate Kim Jong Su, Bronze medallist with 166.8, celebrated anyway, as the two Olympic quota places that were up for grabs in this event went to North Korea.
The allocation of the Olympic slots was decided quite early, as the other two athletes eligible for the quota places were Kazakhstan’s Vyacheslav Podlesnyy, who placed 6th with 107.9 points, and Japan’s Seiji Morikawa, 7th with 87.8.
4th, overtaken by Kim Jong Su after the seventh series, finished India’s Omkar Singh with the final score of 147.0, followed by another Kazakh athlete, Vladimir Issachenko, with 129.3.
8th and eliminated first from the final round with 68.1 points, was South Korea’s Kim Euijong.
The competition will continue this afternoon with the 10m Air Rifle Women final scheduled at 4:00 PM (UTC+5:30).
Live updates will be available online on the ISSF website and on the ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Sina Weibo.