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The youngest finalist was thrilled by the last shot. With 3.9 points of advantage, he beat London 2012’s first qualified athlete Nicco Campriani of Italy, and Serbia’s top shooter Nemanja Mirosavljec, who had just changed his prone and standing positions.

One of the youngest finalists, the 22-year old Norwegian shooter Ole Kristian Bryhn, won today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions Men event, at the 2011 ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup Final taking place in Wroclaw, Poland, from the 18th to the 24th of September.

The young shooter, ranked seventh in the world, made it to the final with 1181 points, and an head start of six points on his closest follower. Shooting consistently right to the last shot, Bryhn secured the World Cup title with an overall score of 1278.5 points (1181 + 97.5 points in the final).

He had never won an ISSF Gold medal before. Starting shooting internationally in 2008, he won two ISSF World Cup Bronze medals, qualifying to participate in this World Cup Final.

“Of course I had quite an interesting advantage on the others as I walked into the final, but I was thinking to what happened in Changwon, this year.” The young Norwegian shooter said, remembering his first participation in an ISSF final match, at this year’s World Cup Stage in Korea. There, he had lost the Silver medal by a few tenths of a point after scoring a frustrating 7.0-point last shot.

“That was my first final, I was shaking a bit more, let’s put it that way. But today I am really satisfied about my shooting.” Added Bryhn.

The Silver medal went to the Italian ace shooter Niccolo “Nicco” Campriani, who finished on the podium with an overall score of 1274.6 points. After making it into the final with 1174 qualification points, he marked 100.6 points during the medal match (today’s second highest final), ending up on the second step of the podium.

“The final match was fine. I lost the Gold at the prone round, during the qualifications. And Bryhn has been shooting great, today.” Said the 23-year old Italian, who is now studying at the West Virginia University (USA), where he is also training.

“I will graduate at the end of the year. But I will try to stay in the US to train in Colorado Spring as a “sparring partner”” Explained Campriani, who became the first athletes of the world among all the sports to qualify for the 2012 London Olympics by winning the first match of the 2010 ISSF World Championship in Munich.

It was Serbia’s Nemanja Mirosavljev who secured today’s Bronze medal, finishing on the podium with an overall score of 1273.5 (1175+98.5) points.

“It hasn’t been easy. Just three weeks ago I changed completely my prone and my standing position.” Nemanja revealed right after the final.

“Why I did that? Because I want to be the best at the Olympic Games, it’s clear!” The Serbian shooter stated, with a smile on his face, while stepping on the podium.

Chiana’s Lang Zing followed them in fourth with 1272.4 (1171+100.4) points, while the Swiss finalist Simon Beyeler ended up in fifth with 1268.7 (1170+98.7) points.

World’s top ranked 50m Rifle 3 Position shooter, Hungary’s Peter Sidi, landed in sixth place in spite of scoring today’s highest final score (101.5 points). Qualified with 1167 points after a difficult kneeling round (379 points), he could not climb the scoreboard further on, and closed the match with a total score of 1268.5 points. Russia’s Artem Khadjibekov and India’s Sanjeev Rajput followed him in seventh and eighth place with 1263.8 and 1263.1 points, respectively.

The American shooter started the news season in the best possible way, coming back to victory just a few months after securing a Gold medal at the 2009 ISSF World Cup Final in Wuxi.

The Olympic medallist of Athens and Beijing Matthew Emmons of the USA won today’s 50m Rifle Three Positions Men event at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, Australia, the first stage of this year’s ISSF World Cup Series in Rifle and Pistol events.

The winter break did not affect the scores of Emmons: he had concluded the 2009 season in first, by winning the ISSF World Cup Final in Wuxi, and after a the winter break he came back to ISSF competitions as strong as ever. The 28-year old American sharpshooter, currently leading the world rank in this event, kept up with his fans’ expectations claiming the first Gold medal of the season with a total score of 1272.6 points, and leaving his opponents far behind him.

Making it into the final in second place with 1170 points, Emmons climbed in the lead with an excellent final of 102.6 points, the highest score of the round, overtaking Austria’s Mario Knoegler to finish on the highest step of the podium.

“It was challenging. Standing hasn’t been easy, today. I was not as confident as I would like to be.  I did a lot of work to calm myself down, to shoot the best shots that I could, and fortunately that turned out to be ok!” Emmons said after the match.

Austria’s Mario Knoegler, 30, secured Silver with a total score of 1270.0 points, his second medal in this World Cup stage, following the Bronze he had won at the Air Rile match five days ago. Qualified with 1170 points, Knoegler lost two precious points on his fifth competition shot, when he fired a disappointing 8.1 that landed him in second place.

Bronze went to the “2009 Shooter of the Year” Peter Sidi of Hungary, who climbed all the way up from the fourth place by shooting 102.4 points during the final round. The 31-year old Hungarian shooter climbed upon the podium with a total score of 1268.4 points, grabbing his second World Cup Bronze in this event seven year after the 2003 World Cup Stage in Fort Benning.

The 2004 Olympic Champion of Athens Lioubov GALKINA of Russia won today’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions women competition at the 2nd leg of the 2009 ISSF World Cup Series in rifle and pistol events.

The 36-year old Russian shooter placed in first since the qualifications, and shot gold with a total score of 679.9 points (578+101.9) after managing a consistent head-start throughout the 10 final shots. GALKINA, one of the most expert rifle shooter of the actual shooting scene, had struggled at the last Games held on these lines last August. She had placed in fourth after a tough match eventually won by China’s DU Li.

The host country, China, secured silver and bronze thanks to XIONG Meili and WAN XIangyan.

XIONG Meili, 22, placed in second winning silver with 675.8 points (577+98.8), an exceptional result considering that she had never competed in a world-level event before.

XIONG’s team-mate, 22-year old WAN Xiangyan, shot Bronze, her second international medal following the silver she claimed at the last ISSF World Cup Stage held in Changwon last week. WAN shot a qualification score of 568 points, entering the medal match in seventh place. Then she scored the best final, climbing to the podium with 102.7 points.

WAN won her race for the podium defeating on the last shot the Japanese finalist Yuka NAKAMURA, 21-year old, competing in her first final today. She fired a last shot of 9.8 points, which could not stand to WAN’s 10.8, finishing in fourth with a score of 669.7 points.

Germany’s Claudia KECK, 23, debuted in the final hall, today. Qualified with 570 points, she fired a final of 99.6 points, placing in fifth with a total of 669.6 points. She preceded the France athlete Soleig BIBARD, 29, sixth with 668.0 pts (569+99.0) and the Finnish shooter Hanna ETULA, 28, seventh with 666.7 pts (569+97.7).

Israel’s Chen TAL, who had never entered a world cup final round before, placed in eight with 661.3 pts (568+93.3).

People’s Republic of China’s national anthem was played at today’s 50m Rifle Three Positions women event, at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, as the Chinese rifle team secured gold, silver and bronze thanks to YIN Wen, WAN Xiangyan and WANG Chengyi.

YIN Wen, who had won gold at yesterday’s 10m Air Rifle women event, led the match with ease, entering the final round with a safe advantage of 7 points on her followers. Shooting a consistent final of 98.2 points, she secured gold with 685.2 points (587+98.2).
The 2007 World Cup Final winner never jeopardize her leadership, gaining tenths on her followers shot after shot displaying self-confidence. She had already climbed Changwon’s podium in 2003, when she had won a Silver medal at the world cup stage held here that year.

YIN’s teammate WAN Xiangyan grabbed silver after an intense final round. The 22-year shooter, who has only competed in a few world cup stages so far, struggled at the beginning of the match and shot in the eights more then once.
Dropped in last place, she fired a decisive 10.9 on her 8th competition shot, climbing up the scoreboard and finishing in second place to finish on the podium between YIN and WANG with a total score of 676.8 points (580+96.8).

Athens’s Olympic Bronze medallist WANG Chengyi, back in an ISSF world cup final round after missing since 2007, shot neck and neck with her teammate WAN, loosing the second place she had gained throughout the qualification on the very last shot. After firing a disappointing 9.5, she landed in third place with a total score of 676.6 points (582+94.6), only two tenths of a point behind her teammate WAN.

The two Indian teammates Meena KUMARI and Lajja GAUSWAMI, 25 and 20 years old, both at their first experience in an ISSF world cup final round, placed in fourth and fifth place, tricked by their last shots after they had been duelling for Bronze throughout the previous nine shots.

Sydney’s Olympic Bronze medallist Maria FEKLISTOVA, coming back after missing from the highest ISSF rankings since a few years, made into the final passing through a shoot-off and finished in sixth place. Following her, Malaysia’s Shahera RAHIM RAJA finished in seventh, and Silvia GUIGNARD SCHNYDER from Switzerland in eighth place.