The 18-year old shooter from China turned out to be unbeatable in Munich, today. With a new Final World Record Junior he won the 10m Air Rifle Men final, and walks toward the next Youth Olympic Games as the favorite.
The 2014 ISSF World Cup in Munich continues today with the first two Rifle events: the 10m Air Rifle Men and Women finals.
The first medals of the day were assigned at the 10m Air Rifle Men event, where the reigning World Cup title holder Yang Haoran (18) from China, gave a demonstration of his exceptional shooting skills.
The young Chinese shooter, who had won the 2013 ISSF World Cup Final here in Munich, battled head and head against the qualification's leader Sergey Kruglov of the Russian Federation and the 2012 Olympic Silver medallist Niccolò Campriani of Italy since the first shots.
Campriani was the first to drop out of the fight, after scoring two disappointing shots (a 9.7 and an 8.8 at the 15th and 18th shots). The Italian athlete, who has been winning a number of medals on Munich's lines, eventually pocketed the Bronze with an overall score of 184.8 points.
The 2010 European Champion and 2012 Wolrd Cup Final Bronze medallist Sergey Kruglov had led the qualification rounds with a score of 631.5 points out of 60 shots, meaning an average score higher than 10.5 points per shot. But the qualification score is not carried forward into the final anymore, and he also had to eventually give way to Yang Haoran.
The young Chinese shooter scored an irresistible newn Final World Record Junior of 207.7 points, pocketing the Gold medal with more than two points of advantage on Kruglov, who walked out of the final with 205.1 points and the Silver medal.
Yang's outstanding performance confirmed that he's the 'man to beat' in the 10m Air Rifle Men event. A great news for the Chinese team, on the road leading to the 2014 Youth Olympic Games of Nanjing. There, competing on his home turf, the 18-year old student will be the absolute favorite.
Iran's Bagheri in fourth
Following the medal winners, it was Iran's first time finalist Hossein Bagheri (31) who finished in fourth place, just 0.1 points far from the podium with 164.3 points.
The 25-year old Swiss Olympian Pascal Loretan was the first to leave the match, after the eighth shot, placing eighth with a score of 78.8 points. Two shots later he was followed by Germany's Daniel Brodmeier (26), an expert 50m Rifle shooter at his first appearance in a 10m world cup match today. Brodmeier scored 101.4 points: not enough to go further than the 10th shot in the elimination-style final, and placed seventh.
The second German finalist, Michael Janker (22) ended up in sixth place, with a final score of 122.0 points after 12 shots, while the winner of this year's first ISSF World Cup stage in Fort Benning, Nazar Louginets of the Russian Federation, took fifth place with 143.1 points.
The ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany, continues now with the 10m Air Rifle Women final today. Follow the event on www.issf-sports.org