Paolo Monna and Juraj Tuzinsky earned Olympic quota places for their respective countries of Italy and Slovakia as they claimed respective gold and silver in the 10m air pistol men final at the European Championships 10m Rifle and Pistol in Gyor, Hungary.
The two Olympic quota places in the 10m air pistol women final went to shooters who were young enough to have entered the junior competition. Gold went to 18-year-old Anna Dulce, who thus claimed the first Paris 2024 quota place for Moldova, and 20-year-old Simal Yilmaz secured a place for Turkey.
The men’s final proved hugely dramatic as Monna, a longtime leader, reached the last round of two shots trailing his Slovakian rival by 1.8 points after registering a 9.4 and a 9.3 in the penultimate round.
Tuzinsky took over with shots of 10.8 and 10.2. But the finale saw the nervous tension switch from one man to the other as Monna shot 10.5 and 10.4 to win by 0.1 points – 239.9 to 239.8 – as his opponent registered a 9.7 followed by a 9.3.
Monna turned to his coach and supporters with arms raised, but there was triumph for both men with the annexation of quota places for the Paris 2024 Games.
Germany’s Robin Walter, a leader for one round, saw his form drop away towards the end of the competition but he held on long enough to claim bronze. Walter, 24, claimed an Olympic quota place in this event by winning gold at the World Cup Final in Doha three months ago in a contest where Monna claimed silver.
Ukraine’s Viktor Bankin was fourth, one place ahead of Walter’s team-mate Michael Schwald, with Switzerland’s Jason Solari taking sixth place, Turkey’s Yusuf Dikec finishing seventh and Georgios Gampierakis of Greece eighth.
Germany earned team gold after Walter topped qualifying and Schwald finished fifth, with silver going to Turkey and bronze to Ukraine.
Dulce took the lead in the first of the elimination rounds and built on it steadily to the point where she stepped up for her final two shots with a 3.9 points lead over her Turkish opponent.
Yilmaz went down fighting with a 10.6 and a 10.5, but despite two relatively poor efforts of 9.7 and 9.3 Dulce had enough in hand to win 239.3 to 237.4.
Bronze went to Serbia’s 37-year-old Zorana Arunovic, world champion in 2010 and European champion in 2017.
She finished one place ahead of another hugely successful and experienced competitor, Ukraine’s 38-year-old Olena Kostevych, the Athens 2004 Olympic champion and London 2012 bronze medallist, who was seeking a fourth European title in this event.
Home shooter Miriam Jako was fifth, with France’s Annabelle Pioch sixth, Latvia’s Agate Rasmane seventh and Austria’s world number four Sylvia Steiner, who topped qualifying, finishing eighth.
Team gold went to the hosts thanks to the efforts of Jako – second in qualifying – Veronika Major and Sara Fabian, with silver going to Ukraine and bronze to Poland.
Earlier in the day the 10m air rifle mixed team gold had gone to the German pairing of Anna Janssen and Maximilian Ulbrich, who beat France’s Oceanne Muller and Lucas Kryzs 16-12.
Bronze went to Sweden’s Isabelle Johansson and Marcus Madsen, who beat Italy’s Sofia Ceccarello and Danilo Solazzo 16-12.