It was the 2014 Youth Olympic Games and Junior World Champion Pavlo Korostylov of Ukraine, 19, who triumphed at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany, as he won today’s 10m Air Pistol Men final.
The young shooter set a new junior world record of 240.9 points (juniors can indeed establish junior world record also while competing in senior events), beating champions such as Japan’s Matsuda Tomoyuki and Republic of Korea’s Jin Jogoh.
Korostylov moved into the lead after the first twelve shots, to finish atop of the scoreboard with 2.2 points of advantage on his followers and his first world cup gold around the neck.
Japan’s 41-year old Matsuda Tomoyuki, a 2010 ISSF World Champion, finished in second claiming silver with 238.7 points.
Four-time Olympic champion Jin Jongoh of the Republic of Korea, 37, secured bronze with 218.4 points, climbing up the scoreboard throughout the final after a rough start into the match.
“The qualification has been tough; I was a bit nervous…” said Korostylov, “but during the final match I calmed down. I did not feel stressed by shooting next to champions like Jin and Matsuda. For me we are all athletes, and first of all we are all competing against ourselves.”
“I did not think about the record, I just shoot my competition, you have no time to think. And at the end it came.”
“Next step is the ISSF Junior World Championship in Suhl, in June,” concluded the Ukrainian athlete.
The ISSF World Cup Stage 4 will conclude tomorrow with the last two final matches: the 10m Air Pistol Men, scheduled at 12:30 pm (UTC+2:00), and the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men, scheduled at 1:15 pm.