The 22-year old Russian shooter won his first ISSF Gold in this event, beating USA’s Daryl Szarenski who landed in second place after closing his match with a disappointing 7.0 shot.
Russia’s Leonid Ekimov won today’s 50m Pistol Men event, securing his first ISSF World Cup Gold medal in this event. Coming from a Bronze medal at the 25m Rapid Fire Men event which took place yesterday, the 22-year old Russian shooter gave his best in today’s Free Pistol match. Qualified with 563 points in third place, he climbed up the scoreboard during the final, duelling neck and neck against the home champion Daryl Szarenski for Gold.
The two finalists fought right to end. Szarenski, leading with a two points of advantage on Ekimov, fell on his last shot. Shooting a frustrating 7.0, the American athlete slid back in the placements, landing on the second step of the podium and grabbing the Silver with a total score of 658.8 (563+95.8) points.
Ekimov closed the match with a 10.3 shot, moving up in the lead and stealing Szarenski’s show. The Russian shooter, who scored 97.0 points during the final, ended up with a total score of 660.0 points and the Gold medal, keeping on impressing the shooting experts. After a successful Junior career, during which he won seven European Championship and a Junior World Championship tile, the Russian shooter proved to be eager to compete and win against the older experts. His next aim? The ISSF World Championship in all events. During the last edition, in 2006, he claimed two medals competing against juniors. This time, in Munich, he is going to meet world’s strongest pistol shooters, contending for one of the first 2012 Olympic Quota Places to be awarded there.
The Bronze medal went to China’s Wu Jing, 23, who won his first ISSF medal with a score of 657.4 (559+98.4) points. The Chinese shooter, who had never participated in an ISSF final match before, climbed from the seventh place to the podium, overtaking his teammate Zhang Tian behind him. Zhang, 29, had qualified in first with 566 points, but after shooting twice in the seventh slid down in the placements, eventually landing in sixth place with a total score of 655.9 points.