The American team keeps on winning at the ISSF World Cup in Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun events in Beijing. Joseph Hein and Eric Uptagrafft finished on the podium of the 50m Rifle Prone Men event, securing Gold and Silver. Germany’s Henri Junghaenel claimed Silver squeezing between them by a few tenths.
Three shooters entered the 50m Rifle Prone match tied in the lead with 598 points after the qualifications, and fought right to the end for the Gold.
USA’s Joseph Hein and Eric Uptagrafft, and the German shooter Henri Junghaenel went back and forth in first, second and third position throughout the ten-shot final, in a close battle for the medals.
Joseph Hein, 28, competing in an ISSF Word Cup final round for the first time in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event, started off the round with a great 10.8 that put him in the lead. In spite of struggling on the third and fourth shot (when he scored two 9.9), the young American shooter managed to keep the leadership by a few, precious, tenths, by shooting a couple of great shots in the inner tenths. The 28-year old athlete eventually finished on the highest step of the podium, claiming Gold with a total score of 702.2 points (598+104.2), and just three tenths of advantage on the Silver medallist.
His teammate Eric Uptagrafft and Germany’s Henri Junghaenel duelled right to the last shot for the Silver medal. The experienced 44-year old American shooter (a 1996 Olympian who scored a world record in 2005) lost his chance at the last shot by firing a frustrating 9.9 that landed him in third place with a total score of 701.2 points. On the other side, the 22-year old first time finalist Junghaenel closed the round with an outstanding 10.8, finishing on the second step of the podium with a total score of 701.9 points, just seven tenths more than Uptagrafft.
Uptagrafft, coming back on an ISSF podium after missing since 2005, also risked loosing the Bronze, as the two-time Olympic Bronze medallist Segei Martynov of Belarus placed in fourth just one tenth of a point behind him. Martinov indeed closed with a total score of 701.1 points, climbing up from the eighth qualification spot by shooting today’s highest score in the final, 105.1 points. The Belarusian shooter had won a World Cup Bronze just a few weeks ago, at the first ISSF World Cup Stage of the season, in Sydney.
France’s Josselin Henry finished in fourth, followed by the second German finalist, Maik Eckhardt. The four-time Russian Olympian Artem Khadjibekov followed them in seventh, while Japan’s Toshikazu Yamashita closed the match in eighth place.