20-year-old Song Buhan of the People’s Republic of China, a first-time ISSF World Cup participant, pocketed today’s 10m Air Rifle Men Gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in New Delhi (IND).
With a score of 249.5 points, he also set the new World Record and Junior World Record, as records were re-set at the beginning of the season after the introduction of the new 2017 ISSF Technical Rules that added 4 shots to the final, now consisting in 24 shots.
“It feels very exciting to win the Gold in my first World Cup participation,” declared Song, who also added: “I take inspiration from Zhu Qinan, one of the greatest Chinese Rifle shooters ever.”
This was the third medal of the day for the People’s Republic of China, the second consecutive Gold, after the success of Song’s teammates Shi and Dong at this morning’s 10m Air Rifle Women final.
Song beat the Hungarian champion Peter Sidi, a 22-time World Cup medalist in this event. Ranked 4th in the world, the 38-year-old athlete placed in 2nd with 249.1 points, losing the brightest medal at the last shot as he fired a 10.2 to Song’s 10.5.
“This is Air Rifle,” said the Hungarian athlete. “But as long as I keep winning medal I don’t see any reason to stop shooting. Tokyo is not that far, in the end…”
Japan’s 18-year-old first-time World Cup participant Atsushi Shimada claimed the Bronze with 227.4 points, after a close duel with both Song and Sidi. The young athlete had already finished in the spotlight last year, as he placed second at the ISSF Junior World Cup in Gabala (AZE) and third at the Asian Championship in Tehran (IRI).
The winner of the Gold medal at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games, People’s Republic of China’s 23-year-old Gao Ting Jie finished just 0.5 points shy of the podium, while home favorite Deepak Kumar of India, taking part in the first ISSF competition of his career, finished 5th with 185.4 points.
Australia’s Dane Sampson, a first-time finalist in the men’s 10m Air Rifle event, closed in 6th position with 165.0 points, followed by Iran’s Pourya Norouziyan (25), also a first-time participant in a World Cup final match, who finished in 7th place with 143.2 points.
The second Indian final participant Ravi Kumar (27) was the first athlete to be eliminated after the 12th shot. He left the match with 122.0 points and concluded 8th.
The 2017 ISSF World Cup Stage 1 will continue today with the Trap Women final, closing the first competition day at 3.30 (UTC+5:30).