Junior shooters shine in pistol, running, target and trap competitions at the 50th ISSF World Shooting Championships.
Today’s junior women pistol and junior men running target competitions belonged to the Russians.
First, in the 25m Pistol Women Junior event, Russia took home a gold and bronze medal. Olga Nikulina set the gold standard with a total score of 578 points--an impressive 294 in the precision stage and 284 in the rapid stage.
The silver medalist, Sara Babicz of Hungary, was one point behind with a final score of 577 points. Adding to the Russian glory was Ekaterina Levina, who finished with 575 points.
In the 10m Running Target Men Junior competition, Russian athletes demonstrated their dominance in the sport by winning both the gold and silver medals. Yuri Dovgal shot for 282 total points in the slow stage and an impressive 285 in the fast stage. He was followed by Russian teammate Alexander Naumenko, who shot 286 points in the slow stage and 280 in the fast stage. Finally, Josef Nikl of the Czech Republic finished with a bronze medal and 563 total points.
Men’s 10m Air Pistol Junior was won by China’s Bin Zhang, who started the match with 100 points in the first series. Zhang finished at 582 points, ending with his lowest series of 95 points. The silver medalist was Lukas Grunder of Switzerland with 581 points. Finally, the bronze medal belongs to Andrii Sokol of the Ukraine. Sokol scored 580 total points.
The day concluded with a nail-biting Trap Men Junior event with top-notch scores from the Italian team. The gold medalist and new world champion was Danny Baiesi of Italy with an amazing 123/125 targets. Baiesi went 75 straight targets and missed one target on his last two rounds. The silver medalist was Julius Vass of Slovakia, weighing in at 121 targets. Also helping his team win the gold (team) medal was Giulio Fioravanti of Italy. Fioravanti shot 120 targets for the bronze medal.
Interestingly enough, prior to the Men’s Trap shoot-off, the Junior Men Trap had a miss-out for fourth place between the USA’s Matthew Gossett, Italy’s Valerio Grazini, and Martin Dvorak. Nine targets through Dvorak fell to a hard miss, while Gossett and Grazini battled it out for fourth. A remarkable sixteen targets later, Gossett fist-pumped to celebrate his victory.