Shooting Day 8 Preview: The apprentice takes on the master
(BEIJING, August 15) — The Olympic Shooting competition continues tomorrow, with gold medals to be decided in the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol and the Men’s Skeet.
The final of the Men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol promises to be a battle between the master and the apprentice. The master is German shooter, Ralf Schumann, who has won three Olympic gold medals and one silver medal in the event. The apprentice is Schumann’s compatriot, 21-year-old Christian Reitz, who is the event’s World No. 1.
In the first stage of qualification today, Reitz scored a total of 289, two points off the leader, Leonid Ekimov of Russia. Ekimov is another young star of the sport – the 20-year-old Russian is even younger than Reitz.
One point behind Reitz is the old master, 46-year-old Schumann. The top six shooters from the two qualification stages will advance to the final, which will be held tomorrow at noon local time (UTC/GMT +8).
Both Reitz and Schumann are not certain to qualify for the final. With Reitz on 289 points are Ukrainian Oleksandr Petriv and the United States’ Keith Sanderson.
Three shooters are tied with Schumann on 288 points: Cuban Leuris Pupo, China’s Zhang Penghui and Russian Alexei Klimov. Iulian Raicea of Romania is one point behind them on 287.
The second stage of qualification, which will be held tomorrow at 9 a.m., promises to be a very tight and competitive battle.
The first three rounds of qualification for Men’s Skeet were held today and 18 shooters hit 70 or more targets (the highest possible score was 75).
The United States’ Vincent Hancock leads the field after hitting a total of 73 targets. Hancock is only 19 years old.
The final of the Men’s Skeet will be held tomorrow at 3 p.m.
