The 2015 ISSF World Cup Final held in Munich was closed today by the women's and men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions finals won by Germany's Selina Gschwandtner and USA's Matthew Emmons.
The competition, held at the 1972 Olympic shooting range form the 2nd through the 6th of September, saw the world's 85 best rifle and pistol shooters competing in 10 Olympic events, aiming at the ISSF World Cup titles.
1179 athletes coming from 103 countries participated in this year's four ISSF World Cup stages in Changwon (KOR), Fort Benning (USA), Munich (GER) and Gabala (AZE) – adding up to some 4000 starts – to select the world cup final participants.
Once again, it was the People's Republic of China that finished atop of the overall medal standings of the Final, with 3 golds, 1 silver and 2 bronzes, for a total of 6 medals. USA followed in second place, with two golds, while the Russian Federation placed in third with 1 gold, 2 silvers and 2 bronzes. The host country, Germany, took the fourth place with 1 gold and 1 silver medals.
Five world records were scored during the event. Three of them were set by China's 19-year old Yang Haoran, who establisged a new men's 50m Rifle 3 Positions junior world record of 1181 points, a new final junior world record of 458.2 points in the same event, and a new junior world record of 632.7 points at the men's 10m Air Rifle event. Yang beat himself, as he held all the records he shuttered.
Another up-and-coming shooter, Jean Quiquampoix of France, set a new Final Junior World Record of 32 hits at the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol final, breaking his own 31-hit record. Today, Barbara Engleder of Germany equalled the women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions world record of 592 points.
The competition was organized in combination with the German Shooting Championship, one of the largest shooting competitions of the world, with a participation of over 8 thousand athletes over two weeks.
“We are very happy about the success of this year's ISSF World Cup Final.” The ISSF Secretary General Franz Schreiber said. “The event has been very well organized, and we have been witnessing some excellent shooting competitions. The best athletes of the world have been shooting here in these days.”
“The Final was organized in combination with the German Shooting Championship, which recorded once again a very large participation. The support of the spectators has been great, and this shows us how popular is the sport in this country.”
While Munich's was the last ISSF competition of the year for rifle and pistol athletes, the season continues for shotgun shooters.
Coming up in next, the 2015 ISSF Shotgun World Championship will be conducted in Lonato, Italy, from the 9th through the 18th of September. The first medal match, the women's trap final, is due on the 11th of September. Follow the event live on www.issf-sports.org