Gold to the 21-year old Chinese ace, Silver to India’s Sanjeev Rajput, followed in fourth and seventh place by his teammates Narang and Padinchare Thermadathil. Bronze to Austria’s Knoegler.
The 21-year old Chinese shooter Cao Yifei won the first final of the 2010 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Sydney. The young athlete led the match starting from the qualifications, and never jeopardized his chances of victory. Walking into the final match with the highest qualification score of 596 points, Cao scored a total of 102.8 points during the final, securing the first Gold medal of his international career with a total score of 698.8 points.
In spite of his young age, the Chinese shooter had already climbed ISSF podiums in 2008 and 2009, when he had won two Silver medals in Milan and Changwon, climbing the world ranking up to the fifth place. In the next months he will probably have to face his teammate Zhu Qinan, one of the best Air Rifle shooter of the World. The two will have to duel on the way to the 50th ISSF World Championship, where the first Olympic Quotas for London will be awarded to the best performers, next August.
The Silver medal went to India’s Sanjeev Rajput, a 29-year old shooter who had never finished on an ISSF podium before. “I felt like I was competing in India, having two teammates next to me!” exclaimed the Silver medallist. He had in fact made it into the final together with his teammates Gagan Narang and Raghunath Padinchare Thermadathil in fifth place. Qualified with 594 points, he climbed up the scoreboard to the second place by shooting today’s highest final score, 103.9 points.
The World Record holder Gagan Narang, also from India, was left in fourth with a total score of 696.8 points. After starting in eighth place, with the lower qualification score, the Indian ace climbed up the scoreboard by firing 102.8 points, finishing just one tenth of a point far from the podium “I am working on my equipment, there is still a 15% to be tuned up to reach the best conditions” Said Narang after the match “This World Cup came early in the season. We closed the 2009 in December, with the Asian Championship in Doha, and we started preparing the Commonwealth Championship quite early, this year. There has not bee that much time to rest in between.”
“The most important competition of the year is the ISSF World Championship in Munich – Continued Narang – The first Olympic Quota Places fro London are going to be awarded there. I am going to try to peak for that match.”
Bronze went to the 30-year old Austrian finalist Mario Knoegler, 30, who placed in third with a total score of 696.9 points, while the 2009 Shooter of the Year Peter Sidi of Hungary landed in fifth place with 696.7 points.