Competing in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, Australia’s Potent equalled the 600-point world record, winning Gold on the lined of his home range.
Australia’s Warren Potent won the applauses of the final hall of the Olympic Shooting Range of Sydney, today, by winning Gold at the 50m Rifle Prone Men final.
Spotlights were on the home shooter since the qualification rounds, as the Olympic Bronze medallist of Beijing had equalled the World Record to walk into the final in first with 600 points.
Nobody could then stop him during the medal match. In spite of being close-followed by India’s Joydeep Karmakar, Potent shot in the lead from the first right to the last shot, ending up on the highest step of the podium with an unreachable final score of 703.7 (600+103.7) points.
“It’s great to win a Gold medal here, on the lines of my home range. – Exclaimed Potent after the award ceremony, celebrated by a number of Australian fans - This is my second time on the highest step of this podium. I had won my first ISSF World Cup Gold medal here in Sydney, in 2007!”
“I was really nervous this morning, before shooting the record. – Kept on explaining Potent - This is my home range, but it’s never easy… I had been closed to it several time, but I had never scored 600 points in an international match before, for some reasons.”
“The final itself hasn’t been that easy too: the way in which the wind affects the shots here in the final hall is quite different than in the qualification building.” Concluded Potent, smiling as somebody reminded him that the 2007 World Cup Gold medal had been his first step on the road leading to the Olympic Podium of Beijing.
“I am now looking forward to the ISSF World Championship in Munich, - He said - I heard that more than 2500 shooters are going to be there, because of the Olympic Quotas… That’s the first Qualification for the 2012 Games in London, it’s going to be challenging!”
The Silver medal went to India’s Joydeep Karmakar, 30-year old, a first time finalist. The Shooter from Calcutta had indeed participated in a single ISSF World Cup Stage, in Resende (BRA), four years ago, placing far behind the medal placements.
Karmakar made it to the final round with an excellent qualification score of 599 points, just one point lower than the world record equalled by Potent. By shooting 103.4 points during the final, he could not make up the disadvantage he had from the leader. His total score of 702.4 points landed him in second place, winning his first international medal ever.
“This was my first time in an ISSF World Cup final round… I have been shooting for fifteen years, but I could not reach these results, something was missing on the psychological side, which is really important in shooting. “ Said the Indian athlete right before the award ceremony.
“I started to dedicate more and more time to shooting in 2007, and these are the results. – continued Karmakar – My next goals? The Olympic Games, of course! Since Bindra’s victory at the 2008 Games, shooting has become more and more popular in India. He showed us that it is possible to get there. And I will try to get there!”
It was the expert Belarusian shooter Sergey Martynov who took today’s Bronze medal, ending up in third place with 700.7 points. The three-time Olympic Bronze medallist, and ten-time World Cup Gold medallist, shot 103.7 points in the final match, overtaking the American shooter Michael McPhail to finish on the podium with a total score of 700.7 points.
USA’s McPhail, 28-year old, missed the podium by a few tenths. The American athlete, who had claimed two World Cup Bronzes last year, could not recover from a 9.0 he fired on his sixth final shot, and ended up in fourth place with 700.5 points. Following him, Switzerland’s Marcel Buerge took the fifth spot with 699.2 points, while the second American finalist Eric Uptagrafft landed in sixth place with 697.1 points.