The two Chinese teammate won the new 50m Pistol Men final, climbing atop of the podium after a great final, and leaving the 2010 World Champ Matsuda of Japan behind them.
Two Chinese shooters, Wang Zhiwei and Mai Jiaje finished atop of today’s 50m Pistol Men medal standings, followed by Japan’s Tomoyuki Matsuda, during the first competition day of the 2013 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Changwon, Korea.
Today’s 50m Pistol Men final was conducted with the new ISSF finals rules, which were introduced at the beginning of the year, and that reshape the final matches.
How does the new 50m Pistol Men final works?
After the qualifications, the best 8 shooters advance to the Final. Qualification scores are not taken forward into the medal match: all the finalists start from zero. The Final match starts off with two series of three shots. Then, the final proceed with single shots. Starting from the eighth shot, and then after every two shots, the athlete with the lowest score is eliminated, until the medals are decided. The Final match ends up with two shooters on the line, duelling for the Gold on the last two shots.
Today’s three medallists tied after the 18th shot with an equal score of 171.5 points, and a shoot-off was needed to decide the Bronze medal, before the Gold medal duel.
It was then the 2010 World Champion Matsuda, 37, to leave the match, securing the Bronze medal with a total score of 171.5 points.
In the Gold medal duel, it was Wang to prevail, thanks to a great 10.7 shot that lifted him atop of the podium with an overall score of 192.1 points.
His teammate Mai, 25, competing here in his first final, was awarded the Silver medal, with a score of 191.2 points.
The home hero, London Olympics Silver medallist Choi Young Rae of Korea, placed in fourth, leaving the match at the 14th shot with 149.4 points. After scoring a frustrating 8.8-shot, the Korean flag bearer could not fight back, and finished out of the podium by 0.8 points only. Leaving the match two shots before, Leonid Ekimov of Russia, 25, took the 5th place with 131.0 points.
Japan's 31-year old first time finalist Koujirou Horimizu scored today's best shot in the Final, a perfect 10.9, but that didn't help him to make it to the podium. The Japanese shooter was eliminated after the 12th shots, finishing in sixth place with a total of 112.2 points.
Mongolia's 23-year old Davaakhuu Enkhtaivan was the second finalist to be eliminated, today. The first time finalist scored a total of 90.8 points, leaving the match in seventh place after the 10th final shot.
After the eighth shot, today’s first shooter to be eliminated (the athlete with the lowest score at that point) was India's 37-year old Prakash Nanjappa, who placed eighth with a score of 71.5 points.
The 2013 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup in Changwon, Korea, which sees the participation of 300 athletes from 30 countries, will continue tomorrow with the 10m Air Rifle Women and the 25m Pistol Women finals.
Follow the match at www.issf-sports.org