Martynov won his second world cup gold medal of the year climbing from the second place, and secured his leadership atop of the world ranking. Denmark’s Nielsen followed him securing a Quota, while the home shooter Brodmeier closed the match in third. The second Olympic Quota went to Switzerland’s Marcel Buerge, fourth today.

The World’s #1 Rifle Prone shooter, the two-time world champion Sergei Martynov of Belarus, won today’s 50m Rifle Prone Men at the 2011 ISSF World Cup in Munich.

Shooting on one of his favourite ranges in the world – here Sergei had won the 2010 ISSF World Championship, last August – Martynov started the medal hurdles in second place, after qualifying for the final with 598 points.

Climbing up with a series of excellent scores, he moved in the lead after the sixth shot, when he gained one tenth of advantage over his closest opponent, Germany’s Brodmeier.

Shooting a great 10.8 on his eighth final shot, and then closing the match with a 10.7, Martynov recorded the highest score in the final – 105.3 points – and the highest total – 703.3 points – winning his second World Cup Gold of the season.

Just three weeks ago, the Belarusian shooter had equalled the 600-point world record for the seventh time in his career, at the ISSF World Cup in Fort Benning, where he eventually pocketed a Silver.

Since he started competing, back in 1986, Martynov has been winning two World Championships, five ISSF World Cup Finals and twenty-nine ISSF World Cup medals. Standing as one of the most titled rifle shooters of the world, he participated in four Olympic editions, winning two Bronzes.

Now, with this incredible series of positive results, he’s approaching to the 2012 London Olympic Games, aiming to win the only trophy missing from his medal showcase: the Olympic Gold.

Finishing in second behind the unreachable Martyniov, it was another Danish shooter who finished in the spotlights, today. Kenneth Nielsen, 43, climbed from the seventh place and nailed the Silver medal with an overall score of 701.4 (598+103.4) points securing an Olympic Quota Place, the second qualification spot won by the Danish team at this competition after the Quota pocketed by Anette Jensen at yesterday’s 10m Air Rifle Women event.

Climbing to the second place, Nielsen disappointed the home shooter Daniel Brodmeier, a 23-year old German athlete ranked 41st in the world in this event. The young finalist had entered today’s match in the lead, with an almost-perfect qualification score of 599 points and with one point of advantage onMartynoc and Nielsen. Not enough to secure the leadership. Scoring 102.2 points throughout the ten-shot final, Brodmeier landed indeed in third place, wearing the Gold medal with an overall score of 701.2 points.

It was Switzerland’s Marcel Buerge who followed him in fourth place. The 39-year old shooter – a three-time 300-meter world champion – walked into the final with a qualification score of 598 points. Then, shooting 102.9 points he landed in fourth place with a total score of 700.9 points. Enough to pocket an Olympic Quota Place, an entrance ticket to the next 2012 Olympic Games in London.

A young first time medallist, Austria’s 21-year old Thomas Mathis, took the fifth place with 700.7 (598+102.7) points, followed by the French flag bearer, Paris’ Valerian Sauveplane, a current world record holder ranked fourth in the world in this event, who landed in sixth place with 700.2 (597+103.2) after qualifying for the final match through a shoot-off.

Russia’s Olympic multi-medallist Sergei Khadjibekov, 41, closed the match in seventh with 699.3 (598+101.3) points, followed by Belarus’ Yury Shcherbatsevich, 26, eighth with 698.2 (598+100.2) points.

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• April 20, 2011 – World Champ Martynov claimed 50m Rifle Prone Gold (0)
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Reigning World Champion Sergei Martynov of Belarus won the 50m Rifle Prone Men event at the ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup in Changwon, Korea, today.

The two-time Olympic Bronze medallist, the current n. 1 in the world in this event, turned out to be unbeatable on Changwon’s lines, today.

Entering the final match with a qualification score of 598 points, with two points of a head start on his followers, he landed on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 700.4 points, after marking 102.4 points in the final.

Martynov, who had closed the 2010 season by winning the ISSF World Cup Final in Munich, is one of the most successful rifle shooters in activity. Today’s was his 21st World Cup medal, in this event, out of 45 participations since 1989.

Uptagrafft won the Silver medal duel

The American shooter Eric Uptagrafft secured the Silver medal with 699.6 points. Qualified with 596 points, Uptagrafft won the duel for the second step of the podium against France’s Graff by marking 103.6 points in the final, securing his second consecutive ISSF World Cup Silver medal. Ciryl Graff ended up with 698.0 points and the Bronze medal.

Highest final score and Olympic Quota to Korea’s Choi

The 30-year old home shooter Choi Young Jeon finished in fourth place, in spite of shooting today’s highest final score, 104.2 points. The Korean athlete had qualified with the lowest qualification score, 593 points, and finished 0.8 points behind Graff with a total score of 697.2 points. Enough to secure an Olympic Quota Place for his country, a chance to participate in the 2012 Games. The second Olympic Quota went to Germany’s Maik Eckhardt, fifth with 696.2 (593+103.2) points.

Following them, Yuriy Sukhorukov finished in sixth with 695.3 points, and Norway’s Ole Magnus Bakken in seventh with 694.5 points.

The 16-time Paralympic Gold medallist Jonas Jacobbson, taking part in his first ISSF World Cup final round today, closed the match in eighth place with 693.4 points.

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China’s Wang Weiyi won an odd-defying match, beating USA’s Eric Uptagrafft at the last shot by 2 tenths of a point, earning an Olympic Quota Place for his country.

USA’s Eric Uptagrafft, 45-year old, an experienced shooter who competed in twelve ISSF World Cup final rounds in this event in his career, started the medal match in the lead with an excellent qualification score of 599 out of 600 points.

The American shooter led the match right to the last shot, when China’s Wang Weiyi overtook him with a great 10.8-point shot, finishing on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 703.4 (597+106.4) points, and pocketing the first Olympic Quota Place to be awarded today.

Wang Weiyi was not listed between the favourites, before match. The 37-year old athlete had participated in his first and last ISSF World Cup event in 2003 in Changwon, Korea, placing fifth. Since then, he did not compete in any other world-scale event, and he was not even ranked in the international world ranking.

USA’s Uptagrafft, who closed his match with a 10.2-point shot, finished in second just 0.2 points behind the Chinese winner, securing the Silver medal with a total score of 703.2 (599+104.2) points. The American shooter was awarded the second Olympic Quota Place, a pass to the 2012 London Games.

The Bronze medal went to Germany’s Henri Junghaenel, a young shooter who had finished in the spotlights at the 2010 ISSF World Cup Final in Munich by finishing on the third step of the podium. The 23-year old athlete qualified for the final with 596 points, and then scored 104.8 points throughout the ten-shot final to secured the Bronze with a total score of 700.8 points.

He was followed by the veteran shooter Harald Stenvaag, a 58-year old athlete from Norway, who climbed up all the way from the eighth place to the fourth, finishing with a total score of 700.0 (596+104.0) points. The “1990 Shooter of the Year” Stenvaag keeps on shooting, trying to secure a pass to London 2012. The two-time Olympic medallist (1992 Silver, 2000 Bronze) has participated in six Olympic editions since 1984. His successful career brought him to participate in 50 different ISSF World Cup stages in this event, and the counter keeps on spinning.

Stenvaag was followed by Slovakia’s Josef Gonci, fifth with 698.8 points, while New Zeland’s Ryan Taylor ended up in sixth with 697.2 points. Twenty-6-year old Yury Shcherbatsevich followed them in seventh place with 696.1 points, while it was Denmark’s Kenneth Nielsen to closed the final in eighth and last place with 696.0 points.

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42-year old Belarusian shooter Sergei Martynov won his second consecutive World Championship title in the 50m Rifle Prone men event today, securing an Olympic Quota Place, a pass to the London 2012 Olympic Games.

The two-time Olympic Bronze medallist of Sydney and Athens finished on the highest step of today’s podium with a total score of 703.9 (599+104.9) points after a spine-chilling last shot.

After leading the qualification rounds with 599 points, and shooting an average higher than 10.5 per shot throughout the first part of the match, Martynov fired a frustrating 9.8-point last shot, finishing in first with just one tenth of a point of advantage over the Silver medallist Sauveplane of France (which means less than one millimetre of difference on a target set 50 meter far from them).

By winning his second consecutive title four years after the 2006 ISSF World Championship in Zagreb, Martynov also become the first-ever ISSF World Championship multi-medallist in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event: nobody, before Martynov, had ever been able to win two WCH medals in this competition.

“Of course I am happy. But I have to admit that I am somehow used to win: this is not my first victory!” Said the shy Belarusian athlete to the EBU cameras right after the last, breathtaking shot “This tile means to me that I am not too old to compete in the next Olympic Games!” concluded Martynov, who will be 44-year old in 2012.

The French athlete Valerian Sauveplane, who claimed Silver with a total score of 703.8 (599+104.8) points, turned out to be a little bit unlucky, today. After making it into the final tied to Martynov with a qualification of 599 points, he missed the Gold by 0.1 points in spite of an almost-perfect last shot of 10.8.

Next to the Silver medal, Sauveplane was also granted the second of the five 2012 Olympic Quota Places to be awarded in this event.

Taking the Bronze with a total of 702.2 (598+104.2) points, USA’s Matthew Emmons won an Olympic Quota places, becoming the first American athlete qualified for the 2012 Olympic Games.

The 29-year old American shooter from Grand Rapids, Minnesota, a 2004 Olympic Champion of Athens and 2008 Olympic Silver medallist of Beijing, had already won an ISSF World Championship edition in 2002, in Lathi, Finland, right before his success at the 2004 Games.

“It’s great to be the one who grabbed the first Olympic Quota for America.” Said Matthew after the match “Of course, I am not automatically qualified. The Quota goes to the US Shooting team, and all the American shooters are passing through a qualification system in order to decide who will go to the next Games.” Concluded Emmons, who has always being representing the USA at the Olympics since he started shooting internationally in 2001.

The last two Quota Places awarded in this competition went to Norway’s Vebjoern Berg and India’s Harlom Singh, who placed in fifth and sixth place, respectively.

Vebjoern Berg, a 30-year old Engineer from Blaker (NOR) placed in fifth with 701.4 (598+103.4) points, gaining a pass for London two years after his foruth palce at the 2008 Olympics of Beijing.

India’s Singh, a real surprise on the international shooting panorama, secured an Olympic Quota for his country with a score of 700.9 (598+102.9) points, outscoring his teammates at his first participation ever in an international shooting competition.

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Silver was taken by Josselin HENRY of France, who climbed from the fourth place winning his first medal in this event with 699.4 points (596+103.4). The France shooter overtook the 20-year old Norwegian athlete Ole Magnus BAKKEN, who shot himself in third place by firing a last shot of 9.2 points, probably feeling the pressure of his first world-level final in this event. The Norwegian shooter shot Bronze with a total of 699.3 points (597+102.3), only one tenth behind HENRY.

India’s Gagan NARANG finished in fourth place with 698.7 points (597+698.7), his best placement in this event in an ISSF world cup so far. The Indian shooter, who is an expert and successful 10m Air Rifle shooter, considers the rifle prone a back-up event “I am still learning!” he had said a few days ago about it.

USA’s Michael MCPHAIL finished in fifth place with 698.4 points (595+103.4), followed by the home shooter Jinseop HAN, who closed the round in sixth with 696.1 points (594+102.9).

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The Rifle is of .22 (“Small-bore”) calibre with an maximum permissible weight of 8kg for men and 6.5 kg for women.

60 shots (including unlimited sighters) are fired in 75minutes. This gives a score out of 600.

In the Men’s 50m Prone event, the best eight shooters from this opening program qualify for the final, which consists of ten further shots, each fired on command. Each shot is evaluated in decimal tenths (10.9 being the maximum). The decimal score gives a maximum “Final” score of 109. The “Final” Score is added to the score from the opening program, giving a maximum score of 709.

The Women’s 50m Prone event has no “Final” Event and positions are decided from the 60-shot score.

Related Posts

• June 22, 2011 – WORLD’S BEST 50M RIFLE PRONE SHOOTER IS BELARUS’ MARTYNOV (0)
• April 20, 2011 – World Champ Martynov claimed 50m Rifle Prone Gold (0)
• April 2, 2011 – China’s Wang won 50m Rifle Prone Final by 0.2 at last shot (0)
• August 2, 2010 – 50m Rifle Prone – Martynov grabbed the title, Emmons USA’s first Quota Place (0)
• April 21, 2010 – 50m Rifle Prone Men – Two medals to USA (0)

The Rifle is of .22 (“Small-bore”) calibre with an maximum permissible weight of 8kg for men and 6.5 kg for women.

60 shots (including unlimited sighters) are fired in 75minutes. This gives a score out of 600.

In the Men’s 50m Prone event, the best eight shooters from this opening program qualify for the final, which consists of ten further shots, each fired on command. Each shot is evaluated in decimal tenths (10.9 being the maximum). The decimal score gives a maximum “Final” score of 109. The “Final” Score is added to the score from the opening program, giving a maximum score of 709.

The Women’s 50m Prone event has no “Final” Event and positions are decided from the 60-shot score.

Related Posts

• June 22, 2011 – WORLD’S BEST 50M RIFLE PRONE SHOOTER IS BELARUS’ MARTYNOV (0)
• April 20, 2011 – World Champ Martynov claimed 50m Rifle Prone Gold (0)
• April 2, 2011 – China’s Wang won 50m Rifle Prone Final by 0.2 at last shot (0)
• August 2, 2010 – 50m Rifle Prone – Martynov grabbed the title, Emmons USA’s first Quota Place (0)
• April 12, 2009 – 50m Rifle Prone – POTENT starts as he had finished: in the lead (0)