There’s a new star in the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol men event, Lin Junnmin of the People’s Republic fo China, who won his second world cup gold medal back to back, in Munich, today.
The 21-year-old shooter won today’s final with 32 hits, beating the home champion Oliver Geis of Germany by 2 hits. Lin had also won the previous world cup match, in Fort Benning, on the 12th of May.
Today’s final provided the perfect mix of adverse elements to stress the young Chinese shooter. The crowd was all for the two German finalists, Geis and the reigning Olympic Champion Christian Reitz. And, during the start-up of the match, a problem with the electronics of the range caused a 1.5-hour delay.
“I was bit nervous due to technical problems at the range, the delay, and all the waiting,” Lin said. “My coach helped me to calm down, and he encouraged me to keep the focus.”
“I was competing against the Olympic Champion Reitz, the world’s number 1, on his home turf. But I did not have any special feeling about that, I did not want to think about it,” he added.
“At the end, I was just concentrated on myself, on my shooting.”
The college student from Beijing debuted in the ISSF World Cup Series in 2017, when he won a silver at his first participation. This year, he made the final at three out of four stages, winning two of them. Enough to climb up the world ranking (he was 12th before this match, and he we certainly move up in the top-10, next month) and to become one of the shooters to watch at the forthcoming ISSF World Championship in Changwon, in September.
The 2016 Olympic Champion Christian Reitz, ranked first in the world, finished in sixth and last place today, collecting 13 hits.
Cuba’s Jorge Alvarex, 28, took the Bronze with 25 hits, finishing ahead of France’s Clement Bessaguet (4th with 22 hits) and Russia’s Alexander Alifirenko (5th with 16 hits).
The ISSF World Cup in Rifle and PIstol events in Munich, Germany, where 817 athletes from 84 countries are competing from the 22nd through the 28th of May, sees the People’s Republic of China standing atop of the medals standings, with 3 gold, 4 silver and 2 bronze medals, when 8 out of 10 events have been contested.
The fourth world cup stage of the season will come to an end tomorrow, when the last two finals - the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Team and the 10m Air Pistol Mixed Team matches - will be held at 12.00 and 15.00 CET, respectively.
Follow the finals live on www.issf-sports.org