Czechia's Matej Rampula claimed his first individual title today after winning the men's 25m rapid fire gold medal at the ISSF World Cup in Lima, Peru.
Rampula looked strong in qualification, finishing with 100 scores in both eight-second rounds, finishing two shots ahead of Su Lianbofan of China. However, he had to back that early form in the final format.
He started well with an opening score of four, level with home favourite Kevin Altamirano from Peru and Germany's 2016 Olympic champion Christian Reitz, and behind Zhu Haojie of China. It took until the end of the first competition stage for Rampula to find their form, sitting two behind leader Reitz and one behind Zhu.
Meanwhile, Altamirano and Germany's Emanuel Mueller were one shot behind the Czech, and one ahead of Su, who was looking in danger of an exit. Instead, Su and Mueller had perfect rounds as the Peruvian missed three and was the first to be eliminated.
Mueller was now just one behind Zhu and Rampula and one ahead of Su and Reitz, with the latter missing four of his five shots. Mueller would not have the best luck in the next round, scoring just twice as Su scored thrice and took it to a shoot-off, which the Chinese won, sealing the German in fifth.
Zhu had been leading at this stage with a three-point lead over Su - but he and Rampula suddenly faced jeopardy despite their advantages: missing four and three shots respectively. This put them level with Reitz in another shoot-off as Su jumped from last to first with a clean round. Zhu would be eliminated and Reitz would claim the bronze medal after losing a tiebreaker to Su.
Rampula had a one-shot lead going into their final five and left nothing to chance, scoring all five to finish on a total of 30. A couple of misses from Su meant their total was 27, settling for silver, their first ISSF World Cup medal.
You can find all results and information from the Lima ISSF World Cup
here.