There were two events in the program of the third day of the 2019 ISSF World Cup Final in Putian: 25m Pistol Women and 25 Rapid Fire Pistol Men. And both competitions turned into exciting shows with a real three acts drama in Rapid Fire Pistol to determine the top ranked athlete in 2019!
Before Putian Lin Junmin from China was leading the annual ranking with 490 points advantage over Christian Reitz and 1029 points advantage over Oliver Geis (both from Germany). Lin’s advantage seemed to be too big and his leading position too solid to think about other options on top of the 2019 Ranking.
But shooting sport is full of surprises. The three main contenders qualified for the Final together with Clement Bessaguet and Jean Quiquanpoix (both from France) as well as Zhu Haojie from the People’s Republic of China. The confidence in the outcome of the “Champions race” became higher after Geis took the sixth place and Zhu was confirmed on the fifth. But the excitement only started!
After 25 shots Reitz had 21 points while Bessaguet, Quiquampoix and Lin – 20 each. Another series determined the forth place winner. And it was Lin... Reitz, meanwhile, has extended his advantage over Bessaguet and Quiquampoix to 3 points and now he was the favorite to win the Final and the 2019 Ranking. Another 5 shots have determined the bronze medal holder – Quiquampoix. Even though the difference between Reitz and Bessaguet has reduced to 2 points, there were little doubts about the winner. Bessaguet was shooting first and scored the perfect 5 points. Making the total of 32. Reitz needed only 4 points to “take it all” and 3 – to go into the shoot-off. He hit the target only twice… And the cristal World Cup together with the gold medal went to the French.
The first impression was that, despite unlikely last series, Christian Reitz topped the 2019 Ranking. But after careful calculation the verdict came out: Lin earned 18 points more than the 2016 Olympic Champion from Germany. 3676 against 3658!
The situation in the 25m Pistol Women was more simple and complicated at the same time. Veronika Major from Hungary had such a huge advantage over other competitors in 2019 Ranking that the results of the World Cup Final could not affect her top position. But she did not qualify to the final of the event in Putian, and all finalists could count on the successful outcome. The best of them was – to the delight of the local public – Zhang from the People’s Republic of China who won the cristal World Cup. The silver medal went to Kim Minjung from Korea and the bronze – to Monika Karsch from Germany.
The competitions continue tomorrow with 4 finals: 10m Air Rifle Men/ Women, 10m Pistol Men/ Women.