THE 50TH ISSF WORLD SHOOTING CHAMPIONSHIP IN MUNICH

1st sidi, peter (hUn)
50m RIFLE
ThREE pOSITIONS mEN
IF a pOWER-ShOOTER RuNS OuT OF baTTERIES
That’s what happened: peTer sidi, the
power-shooter from Hungary, won the 50m
Rifle Three Positions Men event in spite of
running out of batteries. Not that he was too
tired, he simply forgot to change the batteries
of his electronic trigger, so that he experienced
some problems firing the last two
shots of the match. “I risked losing the final
because of an empty battery,” said the Hungarian
shooter Sidi, 2009 European Champion
and 2009 Shooter of the year, laughing about
the situation, as the tension of the match was
fading out. “I ran out of power on my seventh
final shot. The battery of my electronic trigger
was almost empty, and I could not trigger
properly,” he explained.
What happened? The 31-year old Hungarian
shooter, who had already finished on the
10m Air Rifle Men podium three days ago, obtaining
an Olympic Quota Place for his country,
entered the 50m Rifle Three Positions match in
the lead with a qualification score of 1178 points.
Everything seemed to be easy for him, leading
the match with two points of advantage over
his closest follower, Korea’s Han Jinseop.
Shooting precisely and consistently, Sidi
managed his advantage maintaining his lead
right to the eighth shot “…and then the battery
ran out of power – he explained – I trig-
gered one, two, three times…. The rifle only
fired at the fourth time I pressed the trigger.”
The audience clearly saw it: the Hungarian
shooter tried to trigger more than once, and
released the shot when only a few seconds
were left. The result was a disastrous 7.8-shot
which jeopardized his chances of victories.
“Luckily, somehow the battery delivered a
little bit of energy for the last two shots!”
exclaimed Sidi, who then nailed a 9.6 and a
9.2 squeezing the last watts out to become
the new World Champion with a total score
of 1275.6 points (1178 points in the qualifications,
plus 97.6 points in the final). “One battery
usually lasts for 10000 shots. It finished
exactly during my World Championship final.
I was a bit unlucky,” he said. But at the same
time, as somebody noted, lucky enough to
finish on the highest step of the podium in
spite of it. Sidi’s plans for the future are set:
“First I will recharge the batteries, and then I
will go for an Olympic medal!” the Hungarian
shooter said, kissing the most famous battery
of this World Championship.
The Silver medal eventually finished
around the neck of Korean shooter han JinseOp,
28-years old, who had been following
Sidi since the first competition shot. The Korean
shooter ended up on the podium with a
50 th ISSF World ChampIoNShIp muNICh
2nd han, Jinseop (KOr)
3rd mirOsavlJev, nemanja (srB)
total score of 1274.2 (1176+98.2) points, while
Bronze was awarded to Serbia’s nemanJa
mirOsavlJev, 40 years old, who secured
the medal at the last shot with a total score
of 1273.3 (1174+99.3) points.
Konstantin Prikhodtchenko, who had
already finished in the spotlight at the 10m
Air Rifle Men and at the 50m Rifle Prone
Men events, closed the round in fourth place
with 1272.2 (1173+99.2) points, thus earning
a Quota Place for his country. The second
Korean finalist Kim Jonghyun France’s Cyril
Graff also obtained a Quota, placing in fifth
and sixth place, respectively.
The shooter everyone expected to win,
American Olympic multi-medallist Matthew
Emmons, did not make it to the final because
of a technical accident, as he explained after
the match: “I had a problem on my first shot,
during the kneeling series of the qualifications.
I closed the bolt action, and the rifle
fired – explained Emmons, who got 0 points
on that shot, eventually finishing in 38th
place with a total of 1165 points – I don’t know
exactly what happened. My trigger weighs
about 100 grams, so I don’t think I released it
accidentally. I will have to check it.”
The team competition was won by the
Russian Federation, on the highest step of
the podium with Artem Khadjibekov, Fedor
Vlasov and Konstantin Prikhodtchenko, who
fired an overall score of 3504 points. Following
them in second, the Norwegian team led
by the specialist Vebjoern Berg won the Silver
medal with 3501 points, while the Ukraine
climbed on the third step of the teams’ podium
with a total score of 3500 points.
ISSF NEWS 37