The French shooter beat the 2008 Olympic Bronze medallist Reitz, and set ambitious goals for his next future: “I want to secure a quota in Munich and then win the Games!”
“This is my first medal ever, I can’t believe that I won a world cup gold!” Said the 23-year old French shooter Fabrice Dumal, who won today’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final during the closing day of the 2010 ISSF Word Cup in Rifle and Pistol events in Belgrade (SRB).
Dumal did not believe his eyes, when he first looked at the scoreboard monitor, after the last competition series. Ended up in first, he finished on the highest step of the podium. Gold medallist with a total score of 777.2 points, after scoring 195.2 points during the final! The French athlete, ranked 43rd in the world, had never placed better then fifteenth, before.
“To win a world cup gold used to be my dream. Now that I made it, I should start thinking to the next step!” says the young pistol shooter, who looks forward at his future with a different attitude, now that he has secured an ISSF gold medal “I know that from tomorrow I will have to start again from zero, training and training. My aim is indeed to succeed at the ISSF World Championship in Munich. I want to win an Olympic quota place there, because my next dream is to win an Olympic Gold medal!” Concluded Daumal, who will be competing and challenging his opponents again in a few weeks, as the 50th ISSF World Championship in all events will kick-off in Munich, next July 29.
“Munich’s world championship is going to be a big fight!” commented today’s Silver medal winner, Daumal’s coetaneous Christian Reitz of Germany, who at the age of 23 has already won an Olympic Bronze medal in Beijing, three world cup stages and a world champion title (in 2006, shooting as Junior). “It will not be easy to grab an Olympic quota place at the next World Championship: there are only two of them to be awarded in the Rapid Fire event, and many competitiors trying to succeed;” commented the German shooter, who wore today’s Silver with a total score of 774.0 points. “Of course, winning an Olympic qualification quota for the next 2012 Games is also my main goal. I will try my best. I know Munich’s range very well, and I am quite happy with my shooting in this period… even if today’s final hasn’t been the best!”
The Bronze medal went to Czech Republic’s Josef Fiala, 30, who finished on the podium with a total score of 770.2 points, after outdoing his teammate Martin Strnad 49.7 to 48.5 points in a shoot-off for the third medal.