The two top-ranked athlete fought right to the last shot – and further on – to secure the Gold medal. Tied right to the end, it was the last shot which decided their duel.
The 10m Running Target Men medal match turned into the highlight of this year’s ISSF Running Target World Championship in Stockholm, with two champions facing each other in the Gold match in a breathless neck and neck duel.
Poland’s Lukasz Czapla, a 30-year old 5-time World Champion, passed through the qualifications winning a shoot-off to access the medal match in fourth place with 574 points. Then, he climbed up the scoreboard, winning the semi-finals and finishing in the Gold medal match against Russia’s flag bearer Dmitry Romanov.
Romanov, a 1987-class shooter who had won three World Championship titles shooting as Junior athlete in 2002 and 2006, gave his best against Czapla. Shooting consistently, he faced his Polish opponents, answering shot after shot.
After 10 competitions medal match shots, the two shooters turned out to be tied, with a score of 5points to 5. The medal match rule says that the first who reaches 6 points wins the round, so the 11th competition shot turned into a sudden.death tiebreaker for the brightest medal.
But eleven shots where not enough: both Romanov and Czapla scored a 10.0 shot, finishing tied again. Therefore, another shot was needed to solve the tie, and the endless medal match finished in favour of the Russian finalist Romanov, who finished on the highest step of the podium beating Czapla 6 to 5 points.
“It’s great to win here. It feels simply great, I am more than happy!” Romanov stated right after his last winning shot.
“I have been away from shooting for three years, so I consider this a good result. I had fun, and I want to show the people that shooting can be a cool sport.” Czapla said.
“Being back and being competitive feels great. I won two medals here in Sweden, and they came unexpected. I was just trying to focus on my shooting and give my best.” The Polish Silver medallist said.
Bronze to Hungary’s Boros
Today’s Bronze medal finished around the neck of Hungary’s Laszlo Boros, a 23-year old two-time junior world champion, who beat Czech Republic’s Bedrich Jonas in the Bronze medal match. After qualifying for the medal match with an overall score of 575 points, Boros did not make it through the semi-finals, and landed in the Bronze contest. There, he outdid his skilled opponent Jonas 6 to 5 hits to finish on the third step of the podium.
The 10m Running Target Medal match concluded the 2012 ISSF Running Target World Championship, which took place in Sweden from the 1st through the 9th of June. The Medal Matches were taking place in the vicinity of the Stockholm Stadium, as part of the celebrations for the 100-year anniversary of the 1912 Stockholm Olympics.
Teams: Czech Republic in first
It was the Czech Republic, led by Bedrich Jonas, which finished atop of the teams’ podium, with a total score of 1719 points, scored by Jonas, Janus and Nikl. Following them, team Ukraine secured the Silver medal with Chyrva, Prianishnikov and Gilchenko scoring 1718 points. The teams’ Bronze went to the Russian Federation, thanks to Romanov, Stepanov and Blinov, who totalized 1714 points.