The winner of the first world cup stage of the season Nazar Louginets finished atop of Beijing's podium, beating the current #1 in the world Yang Haoran, shooting on his home turf.
Nazar Louginets made it again. The 25-year old Russian shooter claimed Gold at Beijing's 10m Air Rifle Men final, after winning the first match of the year in Fort Benning, and making the final at the Munich's world cup.
Scoring 209.3 points in the final, he beat the current world rank leader and world record holder, China's 18-year old Yang Haoran.
Louginets, followed here by his father, who introduced him to the shooting sport and keeps on coaching him, nailed a series of great shots, today. Series after series, he moved atop of the scoreboard, where he dueled against Yang right to the last shot. With a final shot of 10.3 points he indeed beat his Chinese opponents, who scored a 10.1 placing himself in second place.
Yang ended up with a finals score of 209.1 points, establishing a new Junior Final World Record on his home turf, and claiming the Silver, his second medal of the season after the world cup Gold he won in Munich last June.
Another protagonist of this year's ISSF World Cup Series, Hungary's 35-year old world record holder Peter Sidi, secured the Bronze medal with 187.0 points, beating the 2012 Olympic Silver medallist Niccolo Campriani of Italy.
Sidi had also finished on the podium of the previous world cup stage in Maribor, where he claimed the Silver medal. “I have changed a lot of pieces of equipment,” he explained there, “that's why I have been struggling last year. It took time to fine-tune the new gears, but now I have good feelings. I am looking forward to the next competitions, especially to the world championship. I am back!” He said, and he was right.
Following Campriani (fourth with 164.0 points), Korea's Kim Sang Do took the fifth place with 143.5 points, while the two Chinese finalists Cao Yifei and Liu Tianyou ended up in sixth and seventh place with 122.6 and 101.8 points, respectively. Norway's Ole Magnus Bakken closed the final in eighth and last place with 76.7 points.