Two more events went down today in Baku, where the 1st edition of the European Games is being held. In the 50m Rifle Prone event the Gold medal went to German shooter Henri Junghaenel, who bested his Italian opponent Marco De Nicolo. Then, in the second and last event schedued, Team Slovakia earned the Mixed Team Trap Gold medal.
50m Rifle Prone Men
Once again, the last two shots turned out to be crucial.
Henri Junghaenel, 27 and a three-time World Cup Gold medallist in this event, lost the head of the match after a 9.9 mark on his 13th shot, and chased Italy’s Marco De Nicolo until the very last series. There, he posted an amazing 10.8-10-6 combo, overtaking his rival and grabbing the Gold medal with a final score of 208.5 points.
Most importantly, Junghaenel also earned the Olympic quota he chased all season long.
"It is pretty awesome. First, the event was amazing, really well organised, it was great fun to be here. The most important thing actually was the quota place, more than the Gold medal.” Said Junghaenel.
"It's still a long time to prepare, to stay at the level, and it still requires a lot of work. Obviously, every good final gives you confidence.” Concluded the German shooter when asked about next year’s Olympic Games in Rio.
Despite the defeat, Italy’s De Nicolo was satisfied with his performance: ”It was amazing, I'm happy with my shooting today. This is an amazing competition because it's very similar to the Olympics, same atmosphere and a lot of pressure, and it was a really nice test for Rio. Just the last two shots I didn't hit 100 percent, but I'm really satisfied with the silver medal.”
The Bronze medal was awarded to Belarus’ Sergei Martynov, while Bojan Durkovic of Croatia concluded 4th, Odd Arne Brekne of Norway concluded 5th, Guy Starik of Israel placed 6th, Juho Kurki of Finland placed 7th and Meelis Kiisk of Estonia finished 8th.
Mixed Team Trap
The first non-Olympic team event who occurred in Baku saw the Slovakian team composed by Erik Varga and Zuzana Rehak Stefacekova beat the Russian Federation one, arranged with Alexey Alipov and Elena Tkach.
The format of the event was slighlty different form the indivudual ones, as the six semifinalists was splitted in two groups made of three teams. After the first ten semifinal targets, Italy and France got eliminated from the match, leaving four couples in the battle for the medal matches. After five more shots Slovakia and Russia qualified for the Gold medal match, respectively besting Spain and San Marino, who were left in the battle for the third step of the podium.
In the Gold medal match Varga and Rehak Stefacekova left no chances to Alipov and Tkach, finishing with a 27 to 21 hits score.
"This is something special because it was the first time we had a team competition together. For the first fifteen targets Erik was better than me, but then I was better than him in the final. We already have a medal before the Gold medal match, so there was not the pressure. For sure, I was waiting for my zero shot, but it came late.” Declared Rehak Stefacekova after the medal ceremony.
"Yesterday for me it was a great feeling to get a Silver at the first European Games, but I had a stomach problem today and it was difficult, but I wanted to do this.” Added her teammate Erik Varga.
“The weather today was very windy. Some shooters had luck and their target flew well, but some had difficult targets. Trap A was difficult because it was at the hardest angle.” He continued. “This is teamwork. I shot very well in the semifinal and Zuzana shot very well in the final. We complemented each other.”
With the Bronze medal awarded to Alessandra Perilli and Manuel Mancini, San Marino becomes the only National Olympic Committee who brought all of his shooters on a Baku 2015 podium, with the other one being Alessandra’s sister, Arianna, who won the Silver medal in the Trap Women event two days ago.
“Not bad at all for such a small country.” Mancini said.
Tweet of the day
How do you say “Olympic smile” in German?
Instagram of the day
One more close look at how the medals look like in Baku. This time it’s the colored hand of Zuzana Rehak Stefacekova holding her Mixed Team Trap precious Gold.
The shooting finals scheduled for tomorrow are two: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women will take place at 11:45 AM (CET+3), while the Double Trap Men will take place at 4:45 PM (CET+3).