Today’s was the Chinese athlete’s 23rd medal in the ISSF World Cup Series. Italy’s Campriani closed in second, while the Olympic Quota Places went to Beyeler (SUI) and Kamenskiy (RUS).
China’s Olympic multi-medallist Zhu Qinan, 26, won today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event at the 2011 ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup in Fort Benning, GA, USA.
The top-ranked Chinese shooter left a few chances to his opponents, today. Entering the medal match in first place, with a qualification score of 1181 points and one point of advantage on his followers, he shot 99.4 points during the final, finishing with 1280.4 points and the Gold medal more than 3 points ahead of the Silver medallist.
Zhu, a 2004 Olympic Champion and 2008 Olympic Silver medallist in Air Rifle events, started shooting the three positions event this year, at the ISSF World Cup held in Sydney last March, where he won Gold as well.
“I want to win the Olympic Games also in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions events!” he said there.
Statistics put him in the spotlights as one of the most successful ISSF World Cup participants of all times: the Chinese shooter has indeed won an impressive total of 23 ISSF World Cup Series medals (15 Golds, 4 Silvers and 4 Bronzes), since he started shooting in 2003.
Today’s Silver medal went to Italy’s Niccolò Campriani, who finished on the second step of the podium with an overall score of 1277.3 (1177+100.3) points. The 23-year old Italian shooter had won Silver also at the 10m Air Rifle Men final, a couple of days ago.
“I have been working a lot on my kneeling position. So kneeling was ok, but I missed out in the prone.” Campriani commented right after the final.
“Seen my prone score (392 points), I would say today’s overall result is not too bad. And I was able to move up in the final!”
Campriani was followed by Switzerland’s Simon Beyeler, who won the Bronze medal and an Olympic Quota Place with 1276.8 (1180+96.8) points. The 28-year old Swiss athlete, competing since 1996, had never won an ISSF World Cup medal, before.
The two home shooters, USA’s Matthew Emmons and Joseph Hein, finished in fifth and seventh place, today. Emmons, who had started off the final in seventh place, climbed up to the fifth finish by scoring today’s highest final score, 101.2 points, for a total score of 1273.2 points. His teammate Hein, on the contrary, scored today’s lower, 96.4 points, moving down from the fourth to the seventh place with a total of 1271.4 points.
The second Olympic Quota Place awarded today went to Russia’s Alexei Kamenskiy, eighth with a total tally of 1269.2 (1172+97.2) points.