The 25-year old Russian shooter secured the World Cup trophy climbing from behind, thanks to a great final. It was an unlucky day for the Olympic Silver and Bronze medallists, who finished out of the podium.
Russia’s Leonid Ekimov won the 10m Air Pistol Men event at the 2012 ISSF World Cup Final held in Bangkok, Thailand.
The 25-year old Russian athlete qualified with 582 points, three points behind the qualification leader Tan Zongliang of China. Then, shooting today’s best final score - 102.8 points – he climbed from behind, reaching the top of the scoreboard with an overall score of 684.8 points.
China’s Olympic medallist Tan Zongliang, 40, wasted his three points of head start (he had qualified with 585) by scoring five times in the ninth ring, during the final match. Marking 99.7 points, he landed on the second step of the podium, securing the Silver medal with a total score of 684.7 points.
Tan managed to defend the second place from Turkey’s skilled finalist Yusuf Dikec. The 39-year old shooter from Ankara scored 101.5 points in the final, climbing closer to the top of the scoreboard in spite of a qualification of 583 points. With an overall of 684.5 points, Dikec pocketed the Bronze medal, turning out to be just 0.2 shy of stealing Tan’s Silver medal.
Serbia’s 2012 Olympic Bronze medallist Andrija Zlatic, the current number 3 in the world, placed in fourth with 682.7 (580+102.7) points, and was followed in fifth by Spain’s Pablo Carrera, 26, who scored 682.1 (582+100.1) points.
The second Turkish shooter, Ismail Keles, placed sixth in the final with 682.0 (582+99.0) points, while Korea’s Lee Daemyung followed in seventh with 680.9 (580+100.9) points.
Today’s was an unlucky final, for the London 2012 Olympic Silver medallist, Italy’s Luca Tesconi, 30, competing in his first ISSF World Cup Final ever. The Italian shooter walked into the final with 580 qualification points, but then scored the lowest final. With 95.3 points, and an overall score of 675.3 points, he finished in eighth and last place.