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the match thirteen points behind Jin, with
a total score of 658.5 points (564+94.5). The
44-year old Portuguese athlete, three-times
Olympian, participated in the 2002, 2007 and
2008 World Cup Finals, but previously he
had never made it to the podium. Slovakian
finalist Pavol Kopp, 30 years old, finished in
third place earning the Bronze medal with a
total score of 656.6 points. After entering the
match with 560 qualification points, Kopp
climbed to third place, defeating the Olympic
Champion of Athens, Russia’s Mikhail Nestruev
with 95.6 points. Clearly disappointed
by his final score of 653.6 points, Nestruev
had to face domestic shooter Shi Xinglong in
a shoot-off for the fourth place. The Russian
Olympic Champion, winner of six World Cup
Final medals, took a few seconds to regroup,
and then defeated his Chinese opponent 10.2
to 9.0 points, which placed him in fifth.
★ BRONZE KOPP, Pavol (SVK)
★ Awards 50m Pistol Men
★ GOLD KLIMOV, Alexei (RUS)
★ SILVER REITZ, Christian (GER)
25M RAPID FIRE PISTOL MEN
★
KLIMOV EARNS HIS
SECOND TITLE
Russian Rapid Fire Pistol shooter Alexei Klimov
won his second consecutive ISSF World
Cup Final title in Wuxi, confirming his leadership
in this event one year after the 2008
World Cup Final in Bangkok. The 34-year old
Russian shooter made it into the final round
in second place, and then climbed to the top
making up for the point of disadvantage he
had in regards to qualification leader Reitz,
finishing in first with a total score of 783.6
points (582+201.6). Klimov is not new to World
Cup Final spotlight: he won the title in 2008
and 2006, and he had made it to the podium
in 2007, where he obtained a Silver medal.
Winning this ISSF World Cup Final in Wuxi,
Klimov defeated the current World Ranking
leader, 22-year old record holder Christian
Reitz of Germany, one of the youngest and
strongest Rapid Fire shooters today. Reitz
went through a good qualification round, and
entered the final round in the lead. The young
shooter, looking for the highlight of his season
here in Wuxi, placed himself in second by firing
a couple of disappointing shots in the eighth
ring on his last final series, when he had no
time left to recover. The Olympic Bronze
medalist of Beijing ended in second place,
winning Silver with 780.9 points (583+197.9).
★ BRONZE AKIYAMA, Teruyoshi (JPN)
★ Awards 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men
WCF WUXI
Sometimes history repeats itself: Reitz placed
in second behind Klimov, the same as in last
year’s World Cup Final held in Bangkok.
Japan’s marksman Akiyama Teruyoshi, 37
years old, earned the Bronze medal by placing
in third behind Klimov and Reitz with a
total score of 779.1 points (580+199.1). The
Japanese athlete faced and defeated his opponent
Taras Magmet on the second relay,
winning the second medal of his international
sport career after the Bronze he obtained at
this year’s ISSF World Cup Stage in Beijing.
Magmet landed in sixth place, while India’s
Vijay Kumar closed the match in fourth with
778.8 points. The Olympic Champion of Beijing,
the Ukraine’s Oleksanr Petriv, ended up
in fifth place with 775.6 points. Following his
success at the Games, the Ukrainian shooter
never made it back to an ISSF podium, and
he managed to squeeze into this year’s World
Cup Final by placing in fourth at the World
Cup Stage in Milan.
ISSF NEWS 11