Where is China? The country which led the ISSF World Cup medal standings in the last four years did not show up in the top-3. The ISSF World Cup Series continues now in Italy, where the strongest shooters of the world will meet before the Games.
The 50m Rifle 3 Position Men final won by Italy’s Niccolò Campriani concluded the 2012 ISSF World Cup in all events in London, a pre-Olympic test event taking place in the frame of the London Prepares Series.
The competition, held at the Royal Artillery Barracks temporary shooting venue, hosted more than 800 athletes coming from 100 countries, a record number of participants.
“If everything worked well at this test event, there should be no problem at the Games” The ISSF Secretary General Secretary General said after the last event “We had more than twice the participants than at the Games time, when 390 shooters will be competing here at the RAB venue.”
“The test has been successful, the installation proved to be working very well even under the pressure of such a massive event. There is still some work to do to tune up the venue, but with more than 90 days to go there should be no problems.” The ISSF Secretary General commented.
Fifteen Olympic Shooting events – the same that will be staged at the Olympics - have been conducted in the frame of this competition, from the 17th to the 28th of April. At the end of the competition, it was the Russian Federation to place atop of the medal standings, with an overall total of six individual Gold medals, including two Gold, and four Silver medals. Campriani’s Italy ended up in second place with two Gold, one Silver and two Bronze medals, most of them won in Shotgun events as usual. With two Gold medals, one of the strongest countries in the shooting sport, Germany, tied in third place with Korea, which just won the bid to host the 2018 ISSF World Championship in all events. But maybe the most unexpected news is that the Chinese team did not place atop of the medal standings as usual: China finished indeed in fifth place, with one Gold medal, two Silvers and three Bronzes, far from the five Gold, two Silver and one Bronze medals won at the last 2008 Olympic Games in the same events.
The medal standings
|
Rank
|
NAT
|
Gold
|
Silver
|
Bronze
|
Total
|
|
1
|
RUS
|
2
|
4
|
|
6
|
|
2
|
ITA
|
2
|
1
|
2
|
5
|
|
3
|
GER
|
2
|
|
|
2
|
|
3
|
KOR
|
2
|
|
|
2
|
|
5
|
CHN
|
1
|
2
|
3
|
6
|
|
6
|
FRA
|
1
|
1
|
|
2
|
|
7
|
BLR
|
1
|
|
1
|
2
|
|
8
|
ESP
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
|
8
|
JPN
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
|
8
|
SWE
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
|
8
|
TPE
|
1
|
|
|
1
|
|
12
|
UKR
|
|
2
|
2
|
4
|
|
13
|
USA
|
|
1
|
3
|
4
|
|
14
|
AUT
|
|
1
|
1
|
2
|
|
15
|
DEN
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
15
|
ISR
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
15
|
SVK
|
|
1
|
|
1
|
|
18
|
CZE
|
|
|
2
|
2
|
|
19
|
NOR
|
|
|
1
|
1
|
|
|
Total
|
15
|
15
|
15
|
45
|
The ISSF World Cup Series will now move to Lonato, Italy, where the following World Cup Stage in Shotgun events will kick off on the 1st of May. Coming in next, the ISSF World Cup Stage in Rifle and Pistol events in Milan, to be staged starting from May the 13th.