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The secret of Kim: "I only shoot"

ISSF World Cup Rifle / Pistol / Shotgun · Gabala, AZE

Korea's Kim Cheongyong, 18, won two medals at the World Cup in Gabala. He now aims at Rio.

Kim Cheongyong is leaving Gabala with a gold and a bronze - his career's first World Cup medals.


He's going back to Korea with almost as many medals as he had won before this World Cup. Until Gabala, he had won three - all of them last year: a silver at the Youth Olympics; and two gold medals, at the Asian Games and at the Asian Championship.


In Gabala, Kim won two medals in three days.


Kim, 18, won the 50m pistol bronze, and the 10m air pistol gold. Those were, respectively, his second and third medals as a senior: except for the Asian Games in Incheon last year, Kim had always competed as a junior before.


These medals came at the end of a season that didn't start well for Kim. Last April, he had missed the chance to make a podium in his home country. At the 10m air pistol in Changwon, Kim had come in 36th.


This time it was different.


At the 50m pistol, Kim made his way through the qualifications with 563 points. In the final, he shot 10.0 or more for six times. He then closed on 169.9, and won the bronze - a medal that, Kim says, he didn't really expect. He stepped onto the same podium as his teammate Park Daehun, the silver medalist.


At the 10m air pistol, Kim went even further - all the way to the gold, and to a quota. In a tie with Spain's Pablo Carrera, Kim lead the qualifications with a score of 582 - 27x. In the final, things didn't look good for him. First Slovakia's Juraj Tuzinsky, and then Kazakhstan's Vladimir Issachenko were in the lead. But on the second-last shot, a 7.8 by Issachenko gave Kim the chance to climb to first place. He did not miss it.


The gold medal in the 10m air pistol also came with an Olympic quota for the Republic of Korea. That gave Kim good feels about Rio 2016. He said that he has "50% chances" of winning a gold at the next Olympics. He added: "I dream of winning a gold in Rio de Janeiro."


Kim's strategy to win sounds easy.


"Always training," says Kim. “Just good think[ing] and very hard training.  [During competitions I think of] nothing."


"I only shoot."

Alessandro Ceschi

 

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