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YIN Wen of China, 26, won today’s 50m Rifle Three Positions women event with a total score of 687.5 (590+97.5) points, claiming her fourth world cup Gold medal since the beginning of the season.

“I am not happy with my final, I can do better!” the Chinese shooter said while commenting on her final “I have shot several finals in the last period, but I am still not happy with my performances. Today I struggled to shot a 10. I will have to work on it.”

Silver to the home champion Pfeilschifter
The home champion, Germany’s Sonja PFEILSCHIFTER, 38, shot the Silver medal with a total score of 685.7 (584+101.7) points, winning her second podium this week. The German athlete, a world record holder in both the women’s Olympic rifle events, had won Silver also at the 10m Air Rifle final that took place three days ago.

Pfeilschifter entered the final round in sixth place with a qualification score of 584 points, with a six-point disadvantage from the qualification’s leader. She climbed the scoreboard to the second place by shooting 101.7 points, the highest final score, and by taking advantage of her opponent’s mistakes.

Bronze to India’s Sawant
The first time finalist Tejaswini SAWANT of India, 28, had started the final round in second place, only two points behind the leader. While fighting for the gold, the Indian athlete fired a 6.9 on her ninth competition shot, loosing any chance climb on the highest step of the podium. The Indian athlete slid down in third place winning Bronze medal with 685.0 (588+97.0) points.

“The pressure was quite high, and I made a mistake… This is y goal is to shoot better scores, and better finals. I will have a try at the next world cup stage in Milan, next week…” Sawant said.

Her teammate Lajja GAUSWAMI, 20-year old, went through a similar misadventure. The young Indian shooter had started the match in third place with a qualification score of 587 points, but she fired a fatal 7.8 on her eighth final shot, eventually landing in sixth place with a total score of 682.4 (587+95.4) points.

The 10m Air Rifle Olympic Bronze medallist and European champion Snjezana PEJCIC of Croatia, finished in seventh place with 681.1 (584+97.1) points. She had won Silver at the 2008 World Cup stage held here in Munich.

The home champion Reitz climbed Munich’s podium
The crowded final hall of Munich cheered for the 22-year old home shooter Christian REITZ, who won today’s Gold climbing from the fourth place thanks to a fantastic final match. Beijing’s Olympic Bronze medallist scored 201.3 points with four consistent series, overtaking the other finalists with an irresistible total score of 785.3 points.

“Munich welcomed me fantastically! I had never won a world cup Gold medal here in Munich. I have been shooting here a few times, junior competitions, European championships, but it is not the same thing.” Christian Reitz said, “I am looking forward to the 2010 World Championships. My goal is to make into the final… but I don’t want to speak about medals now. We will see in one year.”

Reitz had won a Silver medallist at last year’s ISSF world cup final held here in Munich. The German athlete, in spite of his young age, has already won a considerable amount of titles. Next to the Olympic Bronze, Reitz collected a World Championships junior title in 2006, two World Cup Golds in 2008 and a Silver medal at the 2008 ISSF World Cup Final in Munich.

Czech’s Strnad lost gold in his fourth series
Martin STRNAD of Czech Republic won the Silver medal, getting his first international medal ever. Strnad had started today’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol match in the lead with today’s highest qualification score (586 points). Facing Bulgaria’s Chaushev in the first relay, Strnad suffered in the last part of the match, shooting a frustrating fourth competition series of 44.8 points. His total score of 780.2 turned out to be 5.1 points lower then the total score of Reitz.

Bronze to USA’s Sanderson
Facing Reitz in the second relay of the final, USA’s Keith SANDERSON, 34, scored 195.0 points in the final round, totalizing 780.0 points and winning Bronze.

The American shooter has never being winning as much as in the last two months. Sanderson opened the 2009 ISSF World Cup season by shooting a silver medal at the first ISSF world cup stage of the year in Changwon, Korea, and a gold at the following world cup in Beijing, China. “I did not really change anything. It’s a matter of time and training… I am just getting better!”

Chaushev received a 2-point penalty.
Sabin CHAUSHEV of Bulgaria had started in second place with a qualification score of 585 points, but since he came in late for the final match, a 2-point penalty deduction was applied to him. The Bulgarian shooter summed a disappointing fourth series of 44.5 points to the penalization, closing the match in sixth and last place with a total score of 767.8 points

Shooting in the first final-relay, Beijing’s Olympic finalist Roman BONDARUK of Ukraine, 34, placed in fourth. The Ukrainian shooter scored 194.0 points in the first relay, overtaking his Chinese opponent Zhang, finishing with a total score of 777.0 points.

China’s ZHANG Jian placed in fifth place with an overall score of 775.7 points. He had shot his first international match at the world cup stage in Changwon, Korea, where he secured a Bronze, and then he participated in the world cup stage in Beijing, where he did not qualify for the final match.

Guy Starik’s great performance
The ISSF world cup multi-medallist Guy STARIK of Israel, 44, a world record holder in this event, won the 50m Rifle Prone men event at the 2009 ISSF World Cup in all events in Munich with a total of 703. 3 points. Starik’s gold medal lifted Israel atop of the intermediate medal standings of this world cup stage, next to Russia.

The Israeli shooter had started the final round in the lead with a qualification score of 598 points, and build up his victory by firing great shots as a 10.8 fired on his second competition shot. With an extreme final of 105.3 points, Starik claimed his fourth world cup gold medal.

The 44-year old shooter is also a shooting coach, and one of his students, Sergey Rikhter, won a gold in the air rifle event two days ago. “To win a medal as a coach is more exciting, since you have no control on what’s going on, and this makes it more exciting!” Starik commented “But I have to admit that It’s nice to be back on a world cup podium. I had won my last world cup gold here in 2003. Munich’s shooting range is great, probably the best in the world…”

“My goals for the future are quite clear,” concluded Starik “I am looking forward to the 2012 Olympic Games in London”

Silver to USA’s champion Matthew Emmons
Following Starik, Silver went to the 2004 Olympic Champion of Athens, and Olympic Silver medallist of Beijing, Matthew EMMONS of the United States of America. Emmons, taking part in his first international competition this year, climbed the scoreboard shot after shot, overtaking both the Olympic champion Aivazian and his 27-year old team-mate Michael McPHAIL.

The American champion finished on the podium with a total score of 702.0 points (597+105.0) Emmons said: “Everybody welcomed me here in Munich! I have been taking some time off: Kate and me just welcome our first child, Julia… I started training again last January and I took it easy. This year I will not compete so often, - continued Emmons – I will not come to the next world cup in Milan, maybe we’ll see us at the World Cup Final.”

USA grabbed two medals
The United States of America celebrated two medals today, as Emmons teammate, USA’s Michael McPhail grabbed Bronze with 701.0 points. The 27-year old shooter had won a Bronze medal at the previous ISSF World Cup held at the Olympic Shooting Range of Beijing.

“The ISSF world cup in Munich is my favourite event! I like this competition! I will stay here a little bit longer for a training session, and I will prepare for this year’s world cup final. – McPhail said – Next year’s World Championship? It’s in my sights. I would like to improve to get ready for the world championships and for the 2012 Games.”

Two Champions in a shoot-ff
The Final was closed by an exciting shoot-off between the two best Rifle Prone shooters of the world. Coming from a weak qualification, Beijing’s Olympic Champion Artur AIVAZIAN of Ukraine finished the match tied to the 2008 World Cup Final winner and Beijing’s Olympic Bronze medallist Worren Potent with a total of 700.8 points. The two athletes had to pass through a shoot-off, won by Potent 10.1 to 9.0 points.

The 35-year old Slovakian shooter Jozef Goci, who had won here a World Cup Final silver medal in 2000, scored a disappointing shot of 9.0 points on his sixth competition shot, dropping down in the scoreboard. He finished his final match in fourth place with 700.9 points.

Austria’s Christian PLANER, who made into the final by winning a 10-way shoot-off, finished the final in seventh place with 698.1 points, preceding the shooting veteran Vaclav BECVAR, a 51-year old three-time Olympians, who closed the match in eighth with 696.9 points. He had won his last ISSF award in 2003, at the ISSF world cup in Changwon.

The intermediate medal standings of the ISSF World Cup stage in all events in Munich:

Richmond shot USA’s first medal.
USA’s Joshua RICHMOND won today’s Double Trap men competition at the ISSF World Cup in all events in Munich. The 24-year old American athlete shot a total of 188 out of 200 targets (145 qualification + 43 final) to finish in first.

“The new shooting venue is great, qualification’s scores have been extreme: usually 142 or a 143 hits are enough to start a final round in first or second place. Here, 143 was not enough to make into the final match.” Richmond said after the final round “Things changed in the final, the speed of the target seemed to be different, the flash targets are heavier and fly slower… that’s why you have seen all those zeros. – continued the American shooter – I did not realize I was moving up in first place. I saw the other were missing, but I focus on my pairs only… and that worked!”

GBR’s Faulds came back on an ISSF podium grabbing Silver.
Silver went to the 2000 Olympic Champion Richard Faulds of Great Britain with 187 (143+44) hits. The English shooter had to shoot-off to get into the final match, and he shoot-off to get out of it beating Qatar’s AL-ATHBA 2 to 1 hits in a shoot-off for Silver.

Faulds came back on an ISSF podium one year after the ISSF World Cup in Belgrade where he had shot silver. During last year’s ISSF world cup series, the talented double trap shooter had won the world cup stage in Suhl, Germany, and two silver medals at the world cup stages in Belgrade and Kerrville, USA.

Qatar Al-Athba shot his second podium in two weeks.
Loosing the shoot-off against Great Britain’s Faulds, Rashid Al-Athba of Qatar closed his match in third place, grabbing a Bronze medal with 187 (144+43) hits. We saw the 28-year old athlete winning a Silver medal at the last ISSF World Cup in shotgun events in Cairo, just one week ago.

Dahlby’s match: from first to sixth place.
Richmond had started the final round in second place, behind the qualification’s leader Hakan Dahlby of Sweden, who had qualified with 146 hits. The a 43-year old world cup multi-medallist fell in the second half of the match, dropping 14 out of 50 targets. He landed in sixth place, with a total score of 182 (146+36) targets, following Germany’s Waldemar SCHANZ (fourth, 186 targets) and the second American finalist Jeffrey Holguin (fifth with 185 targets).

Gold and Silver to China
China gained two medals at today’s 25m Pistol Women at the 2009 ISSF World Cup stage in all events in Munich, Germany. The Asian country keeps on surprising the shooting experts, presenting young shooters who win world level competitions in spite of their lack of experience.

The 22-year old pistol shooter YUAN Jing, who had shot a fifth place at the first ISSF World Cup sage of the year in Chanwon (KOR), finished today’s match in first winning the first medal of her international career.

The young Chinese shooter overtook with ease the qualification leader, the home shooter Munkhbayar Dorjusuren of Germany, claiming Gold with a total score of 793.0 (588+205.0) points.

Yuan was followed in second by her 21-year old teammate ZHAO Xu, winner of the second World Cup stage of the 2009 season in Beijing. The young athlete shot the Silver medal climbing form the eighth place on the start list thanks to an impressive final of 207.0 points, for a total score of 789.0 (582+207.0) points.

Bronze to Beijing’s Olympic medallist Dorjsuren
The German shooter Munkhbayar DORJSUREN, 39-year old, did not shoot her best match, today. She had entered the final round in first place with a qualification score of 589.0 points, taking advantage of her home range, but she did not held the leadership further then the first final series.
Her slight one-point head start did not place her in a safe position, and she slid down in second and then in third place by scoring two disappointing final series.

Dorjsuren eventually landed in third place and grabbed Bronze with a total score of 788.4 (589+199.4) points

Spain’s Sonia FRANQUET, 28-year old, finished in fourth place with a total score of 786.6 (583+203.6) points, shooting her best world cup placement ever in this shooting event. Her best placement, so far, had been a sixth place at the 2005 ISSF World Cup stage in Fort Benning, USA.

The third Chinese finalist, WU Jan, 30-year old, Gold medallist of the 2009 ISSF World Cup in Changwon, finished in fifth place with 785.9 (584+201.9) points. She was followed by the 1988 Olympic Champion and 2008 Olympic medallist Nino SALUKVADZE of Georgia, who closed the round in sixth place with 785.6 (582+203.6) points.