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Beijing’s Olympic Champion JIN Jong Oh claimed gold at today’s 10m Air Pistol men event, coming back on the podium a few weeks after his successes at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon. Jin was close followed by his teammate LEE Daemyung, who secured Silver. Belarus Jury DAUHAPOLAU closed the final in third winning Bronze.

Beijing’s Olympic multimedallist JIN Jong Oh from Korea won today’s 10m Air Pistol final round at the ISSF World Cup stage in all events in Munich by shooting a total score of 689.4 (586+103.4) points. So far, the 29-year Korean champion has collected four World Cup medals out of six competitions in the 2009 shooting season.

Jin had successfully participated also in the first ISSF world cup stage of the year, held in Changwon, Korea. There, Jin shot a record score of 594 points that shattered the previous record of 593 points that had been set by Sergei Pyzhianov 20 years ago, at the 1989 ISSF World Cup Final. Next to the record, Jin pocketed a Silver medal in the 10m Air Rifle men event and a Gold in the 50m Pistol competition.

Jin’s teammate LEE Daemyung secured Silver with 686.7 points. The 20-year old Korean shooter had never won a world cup medal before, and his best achievement so far had been a Silver medal won as junior shooter at the 2006 World Championships in Zagreb. Lee qualified for today’s match tied to Jin with 586 points, and shot a final of 100.7 points defending his position in second place.

Belarus’ Jury DAUHAPOLAU went very close to the two Korean temmates, trying to grab Silver. The Belarusian shooter finished in third place only one tenth of a point behind Lee, gaining Bronze with 686.6 (584+ 102.6) points.

Beijing’s Olympic Silver medallist JIN set a new World Record this morning, qualifying for the 10m Air Pistol Men final with a record score of 594 points that shattered a previous record of 593 points which had resisted since 20 years (set by Sergei PYZHIANOV at the 1989 World Cup Final).

JIN, who had won gold at yesterday’s 50m pistol competition, entered the final round with the intention of achieving a new final world record (previous: 695.1), a result which would have been possible with a final of 101,1 points, a reachable score.

Staring in the lead with 7 points of advantage on the following EKIMOV, JIN shot two times in the ten ring, and then his scores started dropping, landing on an unbelievable 8.0 on his 4th competition shot. The paper of the electronic target had stopped scrolling down, but the athlete and his coach only noticed the malfunction on the seventh competition shots, issuing a protest.

The final round was interrupted, and the judges moved JIN to the spare target available for these emergency situations. The break lasted more then 5 minutes so, following the ISSF rules, was given to the finalists an additional five-minute sighting time.

JIN, clearly disappointed, lost his concentration and could not perform at his best on the new target. He closed the round with a 7.9 shot, finishing in second place behind Russia’s EKIMOV and winning Silver with a total score of 689.7 points (594+95.7).

Leonid EKIMOV of the Russian Federation, 21-year old, won gold with an outstanding final round of 104.0 points. An impressive average of 10.4 points per shot pushed him to the highest step of the podium, where he landed with a total score of 691.0 points (587+104.0).

The young pistol shooter EKIMOV finished in spotlights again with this excellent performance, confirming to be a rising shooting start. At the age of 21 years, he can display a wide medal collection, and the shooting fans should keep an eye on him. Next to nine European titles in different pistol events, the young EKIMOV has already won 5 World Cup medals, and has taken part in two Olympic finals in Beijing.

Bronze medal went to the Chinese shooter SHI Xinglong, 32-year old, who finished in third with 685.9 points (584+101.9) winning the battle for the podium against Mikhail NETRUEV o Russia, fourth today.