-7 to the Games. 25m Rapid Fire Pistol: the renewed event, debut in London

For the first time in the Olympic Games, the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final will be held using the new “hit-or-miss” direct elimination competition format which was introduced after the 2010 ISSF World Championship and tested throughout these years at the ISSF World Cup Series.

The six finalists will shoot all together at the same time (versus the previous system, where three shooters competed in two relays). Electronic targets will be set to record hit or miss scores, and finalists will be eliminated one after the other right up until  the Gold medal duel.

The introduction of the new system did not change the competition dynamics dramatically: the top-ranked athletes adjusted to it quickly and maintained their leadership. Young 2008 Olympic Bronze medalist Christian Reitz ranks first in the ISSF NEWS Magazine’s “Super 25 Chart” as a result of his great results in the last Olympic cycle. The policeman from Raunheim participated in the 16 ISSF events in these four years, finishing 9 times on the podium, and almost always making it to the final rounds.

This year, he set the new Final World Record of 34 hits along with the current World Champion, Russia’s Alexei Klimov, currently ranked first in the world in this event. The two of them have been meeting at almost every ISSF World Cup Stage in the last years, often finishing on the podium together. They have the same personal best (591 qualification points, and 34 hits in the final), and won a comparable number of events (4 Gold medal Reitz, 5 Gold medal Klimov), and everybody is expecting them to duel on the lines of the Royal Artillery Barracks Final Hall.

There, USA’s Keith Sanderson could be among the protagonists. Statistics are on his side: he wins a medal every three competitions, on average. The American shooter, who finished on the podium at the ISSF World Cup Finals last year, has participated in 16 ISSF events since 2009, winning five medals, including a Gold. But somebody could ruin their dreams of victory.

The king of the 25m Rapid Fire event, Germany’s Ralf Schumann, a three-time Olympic Champion and five-time Olympic medalist, won’t give up just like that. The champion from Stockheim has participated in seven editions of the Olympic Games since 1988, and even if it apparently took him longer to adapt to the new system, he is now back on track, peaking right in time for the Games. Ranked sixth in the world, with three medals won in the last cycle, Schumann has a personal best of 590 points, and 31 hits in the final. Enough to finish on the podium and write his name in the book Olympic history once more.

Ready to challenge them are three Chinese shooters ranked at the top of our “Super 25 Chart”: Zhang Jian, Ding Feng and Li Yuehong. The Chinese team had not announced their Olympic squad yet by the time we prepared this preview, but anyone of them could make it, as they all won medals at ISSF events in the last cycle.

25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men

Date of the Final in London: Friday, 03.08.2012 at 14:30

Reigning Olympic Medallists

Current World Ranking Leaders

Current World Record Holder

Current Olympic Record Holder

ISSF NEWS Magazine “Super25 Chart”