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The Chinese shooter left no chances t her opponents, ending up on the highest step of the podium with more than one point of margin on the followers. Australia’s Van Nus made it into her first ISSF World Cup final round in front of the home supporters.

The 2005 ISSF World Cup Final winner, China’s Wu Liuxi, secured Gold at today’s 50m Rifle Three Positions Women event, securing Gold with a total score of 681.3 points.

After entering the final round in the lead with 584 points, the 25-year old Chinese athlete (an Olympic Finalist of Beijing 2008) shoot solidly scoring 97.3 points in the final, claiming her first Gold of the season.

While Wu was getting closer and closer to the Gold medal, the crowd following the match at the Sydney Olympic Shooting Range cheered up for the home shooter Robyn Van Nus, 27, who had never made into an ISSF World Cup final round, before. The Australian athlete had made into the final in second spot with a qualification score of 583 points. Understandably nervous for her first final, she dropped a couple of shots in the eighth ring, ending up in fourth place, just a few tenths far from the podium, with a total score of 678.0 points.

“I’d never made a World Cup final and to do so in front of my home crowd on my training range was a fantastic experience for me,” Van Nus said. The 27-year old athlete has just moved to Sydney, and started training year four weeks ago.

“I was disappointed with my performance in the final but I can take a lot of encouragement out of today’s match. I will take part in the next ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning (USA) next May.” Concluded the home shooter.

The Silver medal went to the 25-year old Olympic Finalist of Beijing Jamie Beyerle of USA, who claimed her second medal in this World Cup stage following the Bronze she had won at the 10m Air Rifle Women event two days ago.

Bayerle entered the final round in fourth with 579 qualification points, moving then in the lead by shooting outstandingly in the final, 101.2 points, today’s highest final score, securing the medal with a total of 680.2 points.

“Today it was quite a difficult day for me, actually! I have been working a lot on my Prone, and I was quite satisfied by the prone round, today. But the conditions for the Standing are quite tricky here in Sydney…But of course I am happy about today’s final!” Said the American shooter right after the final.

“Now I will take part in some selection match for the ISSF World Championship, back home” Bayerle added, speaking at the ISSF TV microphones.

Today’s Bronze was won by Croatia’s Olympic Bronze medalist Snjezana Pejcic, 27-year old, who ended up on the third step of the podium with a total score of 678.7 (579+99.7) points.

Following Australia’s Van Nus, the second Chinese finalist Liu Bo closed the round in fifth with 677.6 points, preceding Malaysia’s Nur Suryani Modh Taibi, sixth with 679.1 points.

The seventh and eighth spots in the final were taken by Switzerland’s Annik Marguet, 28, and by Japan’s first time finalist Aeiko Iwata, 29, with 672.7 and672.4 points respectively.

The Olympic Silver medallist of Beijing climbed on the second podium of the week, winning Gold at the 10m Air Pistol Men event. India’s first time medallist Omkar Singh followed him in second place. Bronze to Russia’s Chervyakovskiy.

The 2010 ISSF World Cup Series started in the best way for Korea’s top-ranked pistol shooters Jin Jong Oh, who had closed the past season in the lead, by winning the 2009 World Cup Final in Beijing.

The 2008 Olympic multi-medallist walked into today’s final in second place with a qualification score of 583 points, and then climbed up in the lead by shooting 99.4 points in the final, winning his first Gold of the year with a total of 682.4 points. The 30-year old Korean athlete had finished on the podium also yesterday, when he won a Silver medal at the 50m Pistol Men final.

On his way to the podium, Jin duelled against the Indian first time finalist Omkar Singh. The Indian shooter had qualified in the lead with a score of 584 points, but

As Singh fired a frustrating 6.7 on his sixth final shot wasting his head start, Jin did not hesitate and moved in first place by shooting a consistent average.

Omkar Singh landed in second place winning Silver with a total score of 681.2 (584+97.2) points, grabbing the first ISSF medal of his sport career. “This is my first time on a podium of an ISSF World Cup stage. – Said Singh after the round – I have been training a lot for this match. I took part in the Commonwealth Championship, but unluckily I did not make it to the podium there. I was looking for a medal, and I found it here!”

“ This World Cup has been fantastic – continued Singh – not only for me: the whole Indian team succeeded in Sydney! I will try to make it into the team for the Commonwealth Games, now. I am really motivated! “

Today’s Bronze went to the 24-year old Russian shooter Sergey Chervyakovskiy, third with 679.5 (581+98.5) points, who finished on the podium with a two tenths advantage on the following Chinese shooter Pu Qifeng, fourth with 679.3 points.

USA’s Daryl Szarenski, a finalist of yesterday’s 50m Pistol Men event, closed the round in fifth place with 678.2 points, followed by India’s Samresh Jung in sixth, by Serbia Damir Mikec in seventh and by China’s Bin Zhang in eighth place.

Competing in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, Australia’s Potent equalled the 600-point world record, winning Gold on the lined of his home range.

Australia’s Warren Potent won the applauses of the final hall of the Olympic Shooting Range of Sydney, today, by winning Gold at the 50m Rifle Prone Men final.

Spotlights were on the home shooter since the qualification rounds, as the Olympic Bronze medallist of Beijing had equalled the World Record to walk into the final in first with 600 points.

Nobody could then stop him during the medal match. In spite of being close-followed by India’s Joydeep Karmakar, Potent shot in the lead from the first right to the last shot, ending up on the highest step of the podium with an unreachable final score of 703.7 (600+103.7) points.

“It’s great to win a Gold medal here, on the lines of my home range. – Exclaimed Potent after the award ceremony, celebrated by a number of Australian fans - This is my second time on the highest step of this podium. I had won my first ISSF World Cup Gold medal here in Sydney, in 2007!”

“I was really nervous this morning, before shooting the record. – Kept on explaining Potent – This is my home range, but it’s never easy… I had been closed to it several time, but I had never scored 600 points in an international match before, for some reasons.”

“The final itself hasn’t been that easy too: the way in which the wind affects the shots here in the final hall is quite different than in the qualification building.” Concluded Potent, smiling as somebody reminded him that the 2007 World Cup Gold medal had been his first step on the road leading to the Olympic Podium of Beijing.

“I am now looking forward to the ISSF World Championship in Munich, – He said  - I heard that more than 2500 shooters are going to be there, because of the Olympic Quotas… That’s the first Qualification for the 2012 Games in London, it’s going to be challenging!”

The Silver medal went to India’s Joydeep Karmakar, 30-year old, a first time finalist. The Shooter from Calcutta had indeed participated in a single ISSF World Cup Stage, in Resende (BRA), four years ago, placing far behind the medal placements.

Karmakar made it to the final round with an excellent qualification score of 599 points, just one point lower than the world record equalled by Potent. By shooting 103.4 points during the final, he could not make up the disadvantage he had from the leader. His total score of 702.4 points landed him in second place, winning his first international medal ever.

“This was my first time in an ISSF World Cup final round… I have been shooting for fifteen years, but I could not reach these results, something was missing on the psychological side, which is really important in shooting. “ Said the Indian athlete right before the award ceremony.

“I started to dedicate more and more time to shooting in 2007, and these are the results. – continued Karmakar – My next goals? The Olympic Games, of course! Since Bindra’s victory at the 2008 Games, shooting has become more and more popular in India. He showed us that it is possible to get there. And I will try to get there!”

It was the expert Belarusian shooter Sergey Martynov who took today’s Bronze medal, ending up in third place with 700.7 points. The three-time Olympic Bronze medallist, and ten-time World Cup Gold medallist, shot 103.7 points in the final match, overtaking the American shooter Michael McPhail to finish on the podium with a total score of 700.7 points.

USA’s McPhail, 28-year old, missed the podium by a few tenths. The American athlete, who had claimed two World Cup Bronzes last year, could not recover from a 9.0 he fired on his sixth final shot, and ended up in fourth place with 700.5 points. Following him, Switzerland’s Marcel Buerge took the fifth spot with 699.2 points, while the second American finalist Eric Uptagrafft landed in sixth place with 697.1 points.

Today’s 10m Air Pistol Women final has been a stage of success for both Korea and Australia. Korea’s Park Minjin won Gold at her first try: she had never competed in an ISSF international match before. Australia won its first medal thanks to Dina Aspandiyarova who came back to victory in an ISSF competition by claiming today’s Silver. She was the first Australian shooter to enter a final, during this ISSF World Cup in Sydney.

The whole Korean Shooting team sang their national anthem loud, at the end of today’s 10m Air Pistol Women Final, at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney. Their 22-year old teammate Park Minjin had just won the first Gold medal of her career.

The young shooter surprised everybody by winning Gold at her first try, outdoing former Olympic medallists and ISSF World Cup multi-medallists with apparent ease.

Park walked into the final round in fourth place with 382 points after the qualifications, two points behind the leader Chen Yan, of China and tied with the second Chinese finalist, the Olympic Champion of Beijing Guo Wenjun, currently ranked first in the world in this event.

Shooting consistently throughout the whole match, Park climbed and climbed, bouncing in the lead thanks to a final score of 102.2 points. Together with her qualification score, she totalized 484.2 points, securing Gold with a safe margin on her followers.

Coming in second, Dina Aspandiyarova won the first medal for the host country, Australia. The 33-year old Olympic finalist of Sydney 2000 ended up in second place with a total score of 481.7 (383+98.7) points, winning her first World Cup medal in this event.

Aspandiyarova was followed in third by the 2008 Olympic Champion Guo Wenjun, 25, from China. The world ranking leader, who had qualified tied with Park with 382 points, finished in third with a total score of 481.0 points, after shooting 99.0 points during the final. She had won her last World Cup medal in 2009, when she had closed the season with a Gold medal in Milan.

Two of the best pistol shooters of the World, Bulgaria’s Maria Grozdeva and Serbia’s Jasna Sekaric, ten Olympic medals between the two, finished in fourth and seventh place, with 480.7 and 477.2 points, respectively.

The second Korean finalist Jung Jeehae and the young Indian champion Shweta Chaudhry placed in fifth and sixth place, with 480.6 and 479.8 points, respectively.

The Olympic Champion Jin Johng Oh fired 12 shots during today’s 50m Pistol Men final round. After loosing the duel for Gold against China’s Lin, he had to pass through a shoot-off to secure Silver, but one shot was not enough to grant him the second step of the podium.

It was the last shot that decided today’s 50m Pistol Men final at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, where the 2008 Olympic Champion of Beijing Jin Jong Oh of Korea and the 2007 World Cup Final winner Lin Zhongzai of China duelled right to the end to secure the highest step of the podium.

China’s Lin, 28-year old, a three-time World Cup Gold medallist, had started the round in the lead with 567 points after the qualifications, with one point of a head start over the Korean champion Jin Jong Oh, who walked into the match with 566 points.

During the ten-shot final, the Olympic Champion Jin shortened up the gap from the top of the scoreboard, taking advantage of a frustrating 7.2 scored by Lin.

After the ninth shot, Lin only had one tenth of a point of margin over Jin left, and the tenth and last final shot turned into a sort of shoot-off for the brightest medal.

Lin shooting first fired an 8.9, which usually would have been not enough to keep up with the Olympic Champion. But this time Jin did not take advantage of his opponent’s defiance, shooting a disappointing 8.1 that landed him in second place.

Lin Zhongzai, looking incredulous at the scores monitor, claimed Gold with a total score of 662.7 points.

Left in second place with a total score of 661.7 points, Jin Jong Oh found himself tied with the American shooter Daryl Szarenski, 42, who had started the match in first place, then sliding down on the scoreboard.

One shot was not enough to break the tie between the two contenders: both Jin and Szarenski scored a 10.0, and a further shot was needed to decide the podium placements. Eventually Jin gave his best, outscoring Szarenski by 10.5 to 9.2 points and securing the Silver medal with a total score of 661.9+10.0+10.5 points. Szarenski took the Bronze medal with 661.9+10.0+9.2 points.

Serbia’s Damir Mikec closed the round in fourth place with 652.3 points, followed by the two Russian teammates Denis Koulakov and Sergey Chervyakovsiy in fifth and sixth place with 648.9 and 648.7 points, respectively. Zhang Tian of China ended up in seventh with 644.1 points, while the first time finalist Lim Swee Hon of Singapore closed in eighth place with 640.0 points.