The youngest finalist was thrilled by the last shot. With 3.9 points of advantage, he beat London 2012’s first qualified athlete Nicco Campriani of Italy, and Serbia’s top shooter Nemanja Mirosavljec, who had just changed his prone and standing positions.
One of the youngest finalists, the 22-year old Norwegian shooter Ole Kristian Bryhn, won today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event, at the 2011 ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup Final taking place in Wroclaw, Poland, from the 18th to the 24th of September.
The young shooter, ranked seventh in the world, made it to the final with 1181 points, and an head start of six points on his closest follower. Shooting consistently right to the last shot, Bryhn secured the World Cup title with an overall score of 1278.5 points (1181 + 97.5 points in the final).
He had never won an ISSF Gold medal before. Starting shooting internationally in 2008, he won two ISSF World Cup Bronze medals, qualifying to participate in this World Cup Final.
“Of course I had quite an interesting advantage on the others as I walked into the final, but I was thinking to what happened in Changwon, this year.” The young Norwegian shooter said, remembering his first participation in an ISSF final match, at this year’s World Cup Stage in Korea. There, he had lost the Silver medal by a few tenths of a point after scoring a frustrating 7.0-point last shot.
“That was my first final, I was shaking a bit more, let’s put it that way. But today I am really satisfied about my shooting.” Added Bryhn.
The Silver medal went to the Italian ace shooter Niccolo “Nicco” Campriani, who finished on the podium with an overall score of 1274.6 points. After making it into the final with 1174 qualification points, he marked 100.6 points during the medal match (today’s second highest final), ending up on the second step of the podium.
“The final match was fine. I lost the Gold at the prone round, during the qualifications. And Bryhn has been shooting great, today.” Said the 23-year old Italian, who is now studying at the West Virginia University (USA), where he is also training.
“I will graduate at the end of the year. But I will try to stay in the US to train in Colorado Spring as a “sparring partner”” Explained Campriani, who became the first athletes of the world among all the sports to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics by winning the first match of the 2010 ISSF World Championship in Munich.
It was Serbia’s Nemanja Mirosavljev who secured today’s Bronze medal, finishing on the podium with an overall score of 1273.5 (1175+98.5) points.
“It hasn’t been easy. Just three weeks ago I changed completely my prone and my standing position.” Nemanja revealed right after the final.
“Why I did that? Because I want to be the best at the Olympic Games, it’s clear!” The Serbian shooter stated, with a smile on his face, while stepping on the podium.
Chiana’s Lang Zing followed them in fourth with 1272.4 (1171+100.4) points, while the Swiss finalist Simon Beyeler ended up in fifth with 1268.7 (1170+98.7) points.
World’s top ranked 50m Rifle 3 Position shooter, Hungary’s Peter Sidi, landed in sixth place in spite of scoring today’s highest final score (101.5 points). Qualified with 1167 points after a difficult kneeling round (379 points), he could not climb the scoreboard further on, and closed the match with a total score of 1268.5 points. Russia’s Artem Khadjibekov and India’s Sanjeev Rajput followed him in seventh and eighth place with 1263.8 and 1263.1 points, respectively.