-14 to the Games. 10m Air Rifle Men: an open match, for champions only

Two of the possible stars of the 10m Air Rifle Men event, China’s Zhu Qinan and Italy’s Niccolò Campriani, stated that they are focusing on a different event. They are concentrated on the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event, as they said. But, statistics tell a different story, as the two top-ranked shooters find themselves at the top of our “Super25 Chart”.

Zhu Qianan has already been going through it. At his first participation in the Olympics in 2004, he won the title. But then, in 2008, shooting before his home audience in Beijing, he “only” finished in second. A great disappointment for the Chinese champ, who declared: “I want to compete in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men, now I feel ready to participate in the most difficult event in rifle shooting.” And he did, becoming one of the best 3-positions shooters of the last cycle.

But he did not forget how to shoot on a 10-meter line, as results can prove. Zhu participated in 15 ISSF events in the last four years, making it to 14 finals, and winning 6 of them (and finishing 10 times on the podium). Not bad, for someone who declared he was focusing on a different event. So, he will go to London, and compete in both events with a clear goal to achieve: “I want to win the Gold medal. If I participate, I want to be the champion, therefore I will do my best to finish in first place in London.”

Challenging him will be rising star of Olympic rifle shooting, Nicco Campriani, current world rank leader who placed in second in our “Super 25 Chart”. Campriani does not have Zhu’s experience, but he has been constantly growing in the last Olympic cycle. In 2010, the Italian shooter became the first athlete to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics by winning the 10m Air Rifle Men event at the ISSF World Championship in Munich. And from there on he kept on winning, participating in 12 ISSF events, making it to 10 finals and finishing 8 times on the podium, twice with a Gold medal around his neck.

The current Olympic Champion, India’s first Olympic Gold medalist Abhinav Bindra, did not have his best performance at the last Olympic cycle, when he took off some time from shooting to follow the projects of his foundation. But he made it to the Games, and he is still one of the top Air Rifle shooters of the world, along with his team-mate Gagan Narang, a former World Record holder who won 3 ISSF medals in the last cycle. Number one in ISSF Magazine’s “Super 25 Chart”, Hungary’s Rifle champion Peter Sidi, with 19 participations, 11 finals and 7 medals, will be one of the toughest competitors in London. There, looking for his first Olympic medal, he will meet a number of new, young shooters, ready to steal the show. Among them, Russia’s Denis Sokolov, France’s Pierre Edmond Piasecki and Israel’s Sergey Richter. Many names, all aiming for the same, golden goal: it will be a crowded, exciting and unpredictable event.

10m Air Rifle Men

Date of the Final in London: Monday, 30.07.2012 at 12:15

Reigning Olympic Medallists

Current World Ranking Leaders

Current World Record Holder

Current Olympic Record Holder