Hungary’ Peter Sidi secured the world title in spite of running out of batteries. All the finalists were granted an Olympic Quota Place, a pass to compete in the next 2012 Olympic Games.
“I risked to loose the final because of an empty battery” said the Hungarian shooter Peter Sidi, the 2009 European Champion who claimed the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men’ World title at the ISSF World Championship in all shooting events held in Munich, today.
“I run out of power on my eighth final shot. The battery of my electronic trigger was almost empty, and I could not trigger properly” Said Sidi, right after the final.
What happened? The 31-year old Hungarian shooter, who had already finished on the 10m Air Rifle Men podium three days ago, securing an Olympic Quota Place for his country, entered today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions match in the lead with a qualification score of 1178 points. Everything seemed to be fine for him, leading the match with two points of advantage on his closest follower, Korea’s Han Jinseop.
Shooting precisely and consistently, Sidi managed his advantage right to the eighth shot “…and then the battery run out of power – he explained – I triggered one, two, three times…. The rifle only fired at the forth time I pressed the trigger” and the result was a 7.8-shot that jeopardized his chances of victories.
“Luckily, the battery worked for the last two shots!” exclaimed Sidi, who then nailed a 9.6 and a 9.2 squeezing out the last volts of power, becoming the new World Champion with a total score of 1275.6 points (1178 points in the qualifications, plus 97.6 points in the final). “One battery usually lasts for 10000 shots. It finished exactly during my world championship final. I have been a bit unlucky” and, at the same time, lucky enough to finish on the highest step of the podium in spite of it.
What is the new World Champion going to do, after this successful match? “First I will recharge the batteries, and then I will go for an Olympic medal!” Sidi said smiling, before climbing on the highest step of the podium.
Five Olympic Quotas had to be awarded in this 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event, but since three finalists (the winner Sidi and Italy’s Campriani and De Nicolo) had already secured a Quota before, the other five shooters were automatically granted an Olympic pass.
Korea’s Han Jinseop, 28, eventually finished in second winning the Silver with a total score of 1274.2 (1176+98.2) points, while the Bronze was awarded to Serbia’s Nemanja Mirosavljev, 40, who secured the medal at the last shot with a total score of 1273.3 (1174+99.3) points.
The remaining Olympic Quota Places were awarded to Russia’s Konstantin Prikhodtchenko, who finished in fourth with 1272.2 (1173+99.2) points, and to Korea’s Kim Jonghyun, sixth with (1174+97.7) points, and to France’s Cyril Graff, eighth with 1268.0 (1172+96.0) points, while the two Italian teammates Campriani (the new 10m Air Rifle world champion) and De Nicolo, who had already grabbed two quotas, finished in fifth and seventh place with 1271.8 and 1270.2 points, respectively.
The Olympic multi-medallist Matthew Emmons of USA, the current world rank leader and the best rifle shooter of the last World Championship cycle, did not made it to the final, because of a technical issue. “I had a problem on my first shot, during the kneeling series of the qualifications. I closed the bolt action, and the rifle fired. – Explained Emmons, who got 0 points on that shot, eventually finishing in 38th place with a total od 1165 points – I don’t know exactly what happened. My trigger is about 100 grams, so I don’t think I have released it accidentally. I will have to check it.”