A duel for the Gold medal kept the spectator’s breath, a today’s 10m Air Pistol Men final at the 2011 ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany.
Since the first final shots, the Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec and the Serbian finalist Andrija Zlatic battled neck and neck to secure the highest step of the podium.
Dikec, who had started in the lead after the qualifications with 586 points and two points of advantage over Zlatic, eventually pocketed the brightest medal with an overall score of 687.3 (586+101.3) points. Zlatic ended up in second, winning the Silver medal with 686.9 points.
Dikec, 39, currently ranked 12 in the world, had never won an ISSF World Cup medal, before. Competing since 2001, the Turkish shooter from Ankara had marked his best placement at the 2007 World Cup in Sydney, where he had placed in sixth place.
Andrija Zlatic, who had won a World Championship Silver medal here in Munich last August and won the second World Cup stage of the year in Changwon, climbed today’s scoreboard from the fifth place by marking the highest final score of 102.9 points, and a total score of 686.9 points which turned out to be 0.4 shy of beating Dikec’s.
Following them, more then two points behind, the Bronze medal went to Korea’s Lee Daemyung, 22, from Gyeonggi. The young shooter, who had won a Silver medal at the last ISSF World Cup in Changwon, placed in third with 684.3 (585+99.3) points.
The three Olympic Quota Places to be awarded today went to Deni Koulakov, 28, from Russia, who placed in fifth with 683.3 points, to Norayr Bakhtamyan of Armenia, seventh with 681.8 points, and to Iran’s Ebrahim Barkhordari, eleventh with 582 points.