ISSF Target Sprint: Egypt and Germany in the spotlights in Munich

Seventy-five athletes participated in the ISSF Target Sprint competition organized during the ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Munich, yesterday.
Target Sprint is the new ISSF Sport for All event, which combines athletes’ precision shooting and running abilities, by mixing air rifle shooting and middle distance running. It requires participants to be fast, accurate shooters and to possess outstanding physical fitness.

Athletes run a track of 400 meters, and then they stop to shoot a set of five falling targets, before they can start running again. The competition consists in three laps, and two shooting relays. The first who crosses the finish line, wins the final.

The two Egyptian teammates Hamouda Elaasy and Mahmoud Ahmed ruled the Target Sprint Men event, finishing in first and second place with a time of 0:04:26 and 0:04:31, respectively.

Twenty-three seconds behind them, it was Germany’s Korbinian Sautter who took the Bronze with 0:04:49.

In the Women event, Germany finished in the spotlights, with three athletes on the podium. Anita Flack secured the brightest medal in 0:05:06, followed by Kerstin Schmidt (Silver in 0:05:13) and by Annika Schlegel (Bronze in 0:05:16).

Germany was the protagonist also at the following junior events. Philip Usbeck climbed atop of the podium of the ISSF Target Sprint Junior Men final, crossing the finish line in 0:04:59, after a thrilling head-and-head against Sven Mueller (Silver in 0:05:02) and Soehnke Jabusch (Bronze in 0:05:05).

Anja Fischer secured the Junior Women Gold medal in 0:05:37, with two seconds of advantage on Annika Kroiss (Silver in 0:05:39) and 18 seconds on Bronze medallist Andrea Graber (0:05:55).