Artem Chernousov, from the Russian Federation, won a breathtaking 10m Air Pistol Men final at the 2018 ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Republic of Korea, today.
The 22-year old shooter beat India’s Shahzar Rizvi and Bulgaria’s Samuil Donkov to climb atop of the podium with a total score of 240.0 points. The two-time European Junior Champion (2015, 2016) had never won an ISSF World Cup medal before, his best placement so far being a 16th place achieved in Gabala, Azerbaijan, last year.
Chernousov moved into the lead after the first ten shots (110.6 points). From there on, shot after shot, he started building a solid margin over his followers. By the 18th shot, he had collected 181.9 points, and a huge advantage of 4.1 points on his opponents.
Then, the match turned into a rollercoaster ride. Chernousov fired an 8.9 and a 9.4 shots, losing most of his lead. At the same time, behind him, Rizvi nailed a series of great shots, including a 10.9 on his 21st shot, coming as close as 0.2 points.
The last shot decided the final: Rizvi could not best Chernousov’s 10.0, and placed himself in second with a total score of 239.8 points. Nevertheless, today’s performance confirmed the great momentum of 23-year old Rizvi, who recently won the inaugural world cup stage of the season in Guadalajara, Mexico, where he also set a new world record of 242.3 points.
The Bronze medal went to Bulgaria’s Olympian Samuil Donokov, 34, who claimed his first ISSF medal in career with 217.1 points.
The 2006 Junior World Champion Pu Qifeng, 32, from the People’s Republic of China, followed the medalists in fourth place with 196.1 points, finishing ahead of Vietnam’s 43-year old Tran Quoc Cuong, fifth with 176.2 points.
Coming in sixth, Ukraine’s Oleh Omelchuk scored 155.6 points, while his teammate Viktor Bankin marked 113.0 points to finish in eighth place. Dividing them, Slovakia’s Juraj Tuzinsky placed in seventh with 135.5 points.
The 208 ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Changwon, Republic of Korea, is the second leg of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series. Over 800 athletes from 70 nations are taking part in the competition, that also servers as a test event for the 52nd ISSF World Championship in all Shooting events, to be held here in September.
The competition will continue this afternoon with the men’s Trap final. As it happened yesterday at the women’s event, the weather - rainy and windy - has been playing a big role in the qualification series.
Follow the match live on www.issf-sports.org