Shooters from Russia, China and the U.S. split the gold medals on offer at the ISSF shooting World Cup held in Munich on Sunday.
Russian military shooter Vladimir Gontcharov outclassed Serbia's Damir Mikec to claim the gold medal of the men's 50m pistol, the first event of the day.
Gontcharov scored 666.5 points in the final at the Munich Olympic Shooting Range, edging Mikec by 0.4 points. Rashid Yunusmetov from Karzakhstan, who had just harvested the gold on the discipline in the Beijing leg, took the bronze with 664.9 points.
Mikec (574) and Yunusmetov (568) were in first and second place respectively after the qualifying round, while Gontcharov came fifth with 567 points.
To the surprise of his supporters at the Munich Olympic Shooting Range, however, Mikec shot an extremely awkward 5.9 points in the third try, costing the 25-year-old the title.
"I made a huge mistake in my third shot," Mikec said after the final.
Thanks to stable performance, Gontcharov overtook Mikec in the 7th shot with 636.3 points against 636.0 points, and went to clinch gold.
Mikec shot a handsome 10.2 points in his ninth try, narrowing down the gap to 0.9 points.
In the final breath-taking shot, Mikec scored an amazing 10.4 points, while 32-year-old Gontcharov stood the pressure to manage 9.9 points, enough to pocket the gold.
To the surprise of the Chinese regiment, three shooters entered the final stage of women's 25m pistol, with Yuan Jing and Zhao Xu upsetting local favorite Munkhbayar Dorjsuren with a 1-2 finish in the event.
Yuan scored 793.0 points to win the gold and Zhao Xu took silver with 789.0 points. Germany's Dorjsuren had to settle for the bronze on 788.4 points.
It is Yuan's first ever World Cup title and also the first victory for the 49-member Chinese team in Munich.
"I'm very excited. It is not easy to get the gold," Yuan told Xinhua after the final.
"I was not stable before the competition and it was not easy for me to enter the final. I did not expect I could shoot such high scores," she added.
The competition between Yuan and Dorjsuren was an eye-catching moment at the Munich Olympic Shooting Range on the day.
Dorjsuren, a bronze medalist at the Beijing Olympics, was regarded as the top favorite for the 25m pistol gold. She scored 589 points to top the qualifying round, one point ahead of Yuan.
But Yuan outscored Dorjsuren by 51.4 points against 50.2 points in the first round of the final and then widened her advantage to 1.6 points after the second round.
Dorjsuren managed to shot a handsome score of 52.7 points in the third round, regaining the lead with a margin of 0.2 points.
Meanwhile, Zhao Xu, who merely scored 582 points to stand at the eighth place after the qualifying round, managed to elevate to the third place with 737.2 points.
In the decisive last round, the Chinese duo scored 52.1 points and 51.8 points respectively, while Dorjsuren merely shot an awkward score of 47.3 points, igniting regretful sighs from local supporters.
"I did not feel good in the first three rounds of the final, I almost lost hope then, but I did everything I could in the last round," Yuan said.
Yuan said she had improved after participating in the World Cup series, but it was a pity that some top shooters did not show up in Munich.
Zhao Xu, who had just harvested a gold in the event at the Beijing leg last month, said she needs to work harder in future.
"My coach told after the final that I should improve in this aspect, especially in the rapid fire," she added.
Wu Yan, also from China, finished fifth. Wu won the gold of the same discipline at the Changwo (South Korean) leg of the World Cup series last month.
The final of men's double trap is the last event of the day, and U.S. trap shooter Joshua Richmond claimed the gold medal of the event, winning the first medal for the U.S. team at the Munich tournament.
Richmond shot a consistent competition in the final. While everybody around him missed, he kept the right concentration finishing in the lead with 188 hits.
"Today's score is very high, usually 143 hits could top the qualifying round, but not today," Richmond said after the final.
Commenting on his stable performance in the final stage, the 24-year-old said he "did not realize" other shooters has missed targets one after another.
Both Richard Faulds from Britain and Rashid Al-Athba from Qatar hit 187 targets in the final round of the event, but Faulds hit both targets in the first shootoff to claim the silver, while Al-Athba merely hit one, taking home a bronze.
On Monday, finals of men's 50m rifle prone and men's 25m rapid fire pistol are to be staged in the Munich Olympic Shooting Range.
(Xinhua News Agency May 18, 2009)
