25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men – Russia’s Klimov shot Gold preceding Olympic Bronze Reitz
Alexei KLIMOV of Russia won today’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men match at the ISSF World Cup Final of Bangkok. The Russian shooter, who had won also the 2006 WCF edition held in Granada, shot an extreme final to overtake the German Olympic Bronze medallist REITZ. The Olympic Champion PETRIV struggled during the qualifications, ending up in fifth place.
KLIMOV had started the final round in second place with a qualification score of 585 points, five points less then what scored by the 21-year old Christian REITZ, the young German Rapid Fire phenomenon who had shot Bronze at the last Games of Beijing. Duelling in the same relay, the two shooters fought for Gold right to the last series, when KLIMOV finally overtook REITZ to win the Gold medal.
The 33-year old Russian shooter closed the match with an outstanding final score of 204.7 points, for a total score of 789.7 points. REITZ finished in second, winning Silver with 787.9 points.
“Mr. Rapid Fire”, the three times Olympic Gold medallist Ralf SCHUMANN of Germany, 46, come here to defend the World Cup title won last year. After firing a qualification of 582 points, he shot a final of 195.0 points, securing a place on the podium with a total of 777.0 points. By winning this Bronze medal, SCHUMMAN took his ISSF World Cup Final medal-counts up to 18 pieces. The German legend has indeed won the incredible number of 13 different editions of the ISSF World Cup series, stepping on the podium a total of 18 times.
The Olympic Champion of Beijing, Oleksandr PETRIV of Ukraine, 34, struggled during the qualification rounds, and made into the final only after passing through a shoot-off for the sixth place. PETRIV, starting the final round with the lowest qualification score of 575 points, could not aim to the medals. Shooting a final of 197.8 points he moved up in the scoreboard, eventually ending up in fifth place behind the 2006 World Champion ZHANG Penghui of China, fourth today.
