Competition ended in Osijek, Croatia today.
Serhii Kulish from Ukraine and Laura-Georgeta Ilie of Romania were crowned champions in the men's and women's rifle finals today in Osijek, Croatia, at the European Championship 10m.
Kulish was the leader in the men's final from the beginning and had built up a strong lead going into the elimination stage - which was quickly cut down in just four shots by Ilia Marsov, with three scores of 10.7 or over.
At one stage they were tied, before an error from Marsov gave the Ukrainian some breathing room. Just 0.4 separated them going into the final round, with Kulish holding on by a score of 252.0 to 251.7. Paris 2024 Olympic bronze medallist Miran Maricic edged out his Croatian compatriot Petar Gorsa in a shoot-off for third place.
Czech Republic's Filip Nepejchal, Ales Entrichel and Jiri Privratsky won the team medal, with Maricic, Gorsa and Josip Sikavica taking silver for Croatia and the Austrian trio of Patrick Diem, Martin Strempfl and Thomas Mathis winning bronze.
Ilie's victory in the women's final was more comfortable, beating Olympic bronze medallist Audrey Gogniat from Switzerland to the title. The pair narrowly trailed Serbia's Aleksandra Havran prior to the elimination stage, but quickly overtook her in what became a close contest for the majority of the competition. The difference was the quality of the Romanian, with her worst score in her last eight shots being 10.3. Four 10.6s, a 10.7 and a 10.9 meant she cruised to the win with a total of 252.3, with Gogniat scoring 250.9. Havran was comfortably the bronze medallist.
Norway won the team medal, with Jeanette Hegg Duestad, Mari Baardseng Loevseth and Amalie Evensen setting a new Qualification European Record of 1896.9. Hungarians Eszter Denes, Eszter Meszaros and Gitta Bajos were the silver medallists, with Romanians Ilie, Roxana Sidi and Adriana-Roberta Teodorescu pipping Switzerland to the bronze.
Finally, Sevval Ilayda Tarhan finished the competition with another gold, after individual success, by winning the mixed team pistol title with her Turkish partner Yusuf Dikec. What was looking like a comfortable win over the Czech duo of Viktorie Sindlerova and Pavel Schejbal came down to a nail-biting decider. The Olympic silver medallists had been leading 14-6, needing just one more victory to get them over the line, but the Czechs equalised. Fortunately for Tarhan and Dikec, they won the final round. Olympic gold medallists Zorana Arunovic and Damir Mikec also won a decider for bronze, beating Antoaneta Kostadinova and Kiril Kirov of Bulgaria 17-15.