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Finals 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men

Pupo wins Cuba’s first Olympic Gold in Shooting

XXX Olympic Games · London, GBR

The 35-year old athlete won the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men event, competing in the new final. He was followed by India’s Kumar and by China’s Ding.

Leuris Pupo became the first Cuban shooter to win an Olympic Shooting Gold medal, at today’s 25m Pistol Men event.

 

The Cuban athlete cruised through the final, shooting with excellent timing. After starting off with a 3-hit series, Pupo always hit 4 or 5 targets per series, resisting in the lead leaving the other finalists behind him.

 

With a total score of 34 hits in the final, Pupo equalled the Final World Record and set a new Final Olympic Record.

 

"I feel it is a real honour. I have been in the side since 2000 and I was inspired at the last Olympics (in Beijing). This is my fourth Olympics and I feel overwhelmed." Pupo said.

“My main focus was the medal, which is something I will treasure for the rest of my life.” The Cuban athlete said.

 

“I going to become father soon, I am 35 and I really wanted a child. This is just the perfect moment.” He added.

 

Pupo outdid India’s Vijay Kumar in the final duel for Gold, leaving the Indian finalist with 30 hits and the Silver medal. Kumar, 27, had finished last year’s ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning (USA) in second, but had never made it to an ISSF podium with the new Final competition format. 

 

This was indeed the first appearance at the Olympics for the new 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men competition format. After the qualifications – which are conducted like in the past, on targets set to record points – the six-shooters final follows a hit-or-miss logic, and a knock-out format. After the first four series, the shooter with the lowest result is out. From there on, after every series, the shooter ranked in last has to leave the match, right up to the Gold medal duel.

 

"This kind of performance is not new to me. I have performed before and won medals before in the Commonwealth Games. The one medal that was missing was this. I won it for India." Kumar said.

 

The Bronze medal went to China’s Ding of the People’s Republic of China, who scored 588 points in the qualifications and then hit 27 targets in the final, to secure his first Olympic medal. "The changes have not affected me at all." The Chinese shooter said, speaking about the new competition format. “At the last Games, I was just too young. It took time to get to this level.”

 

The first to leave the match had been Germany’s Olympic hope Christian Reitz, the 2008 Bronze medallist, who dropped out the fourth series with a score of 13 hits.

 

China’s Jang Zhang followed him after the fifth series, with 17 hits, while the leading world champion Alexei Klimov of Russia had to leave the match after the sixth series, with a score of 23 hits. The Russian finalist had scored a new World Record and a new Olympic Record of 592 points in the qualifications, before dropping out the final without a medal.

Marco Dalla Dea

 

ISSF Partners