Juniors - India's Noria Notches Junior Men's Double Trap Gold Medal

At the World Championship in Nicosia in 2007, Asher Noria of India finished 7th with 130/150 targets.  Yesterday, Noria proved that he has made significant improvements in his shooting in just three short years.  At this year’s World Shooting Championships in Munich, Germany, Noria not only shot for 146 total targets, but added his name to the record books as he equaled the world record.  Noria’s strong two first rounds of 49 targets propelled him ahead of the competition, and a final round of 48 secured the gold medal.  The silver medalist was Alessandro Chianese of Italy with 141 targets.  A practicing shooter since 2005, Chianese won a bronze at the World Championship in Maribor in 2009.  Lastly, the bronze medalist Filip Praj of Slovakia was the bronze medalist with 140 targets.   

The Chinese dominated the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men Junior event.  Zhiguo Zhou won the event today with a total score of 577 points.  Zhou shot for 286 points in the first stage and finished strong with 291 points in the second stage.  His Chinese teammate, Xuan Feng Long was three points behind with 574 total points.  In the 2009 World Cup in Munich, Long placed 18th in this same event--clearly he has developed as a shooter within one short year.  Russia’s Alexander Alifirenko beat Korea’s Choi Yong Hoo and Germany’s Gregor Luetkevedder for the bronze medal in a shoot-off.  Alifirenko added another bronze medal to his hardware collection as he also claimed bronze in the 25m Pistol Men Junior event.  Today, he finished with 570 points plus 46 points in the shoot-off.    

Finally, the sixth day of competition ended with the 50m Rifle 3 Position Women Junior event.  Denmark’s Stine Nielsen was the top finisher with 587 total points.  She began her match with an impressive 100 points in the first series of prone and remained consistent for the gold.  In second was the USA’s Sarah Scherer of Fort Worth, Texas.  Scherer, who helped her team to a gold medal yesterday, put 585 points on the scoreboard today.  The bronze medalist was Elin Karlsson of Sweden with 582 total points.