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The two finalists duelled for Gold throughout the 10m Air Pistol Women medal match. Olympic Quotas to Sun (CHN), Park (KOR) and Aspandiyarova (AUS).

China’s 24-year old finalist Sun Qi and Ukraine’s 2004 Olympic Champion Olena Kostevych fought neck and neck right to the last shot, during today’s 10m Air Pistol Women event at the ISSF World Cup in Changwon, Korea.

The two shooters walked into the final with an equal qualification score of 391 points, tied in first place. Then, they went back and forth in first and second place throughout the whole 10-shot final, duelling over decimals to secure the Gold medal.

Eventually, it was Sun Qi who secured the brightest medal with a total score of 489.9 points, with just 0.1 of advantage on Kostevych. With the Gold medal, the Chinese shooter was also awarded an Olympic Quota Place, a pass for the next 2012 Games. Sun had never won an ISSF medal, before, and her best international placement had been a second place at the 2010 Asian Games.

The 25-year old Ukrainian champion Kostevych, who had finished in third at the previous world cup stage in Sydney winning there an Olympic Quota, landed on the second step of today’s podium, pocketing the Silver with 489.8 points.

Georogia’s three-times Olympic medallist Nino Salukvadze, who had won the previous World Cup Stage in Sydney, ended up in third place winning the Bronze medal with 486.7 (385+101.7) points, after shooting today’s highest score in the final. Climbing to the podium, she overtook Belarus’ Viktoria Chaika, 30, who closed the match in fourth with 486.2 (387+99.2) points, and left behind Antoaneta Boneva of Bulgaria, fifth with 484.6 (384+100.6) points.

The other two Olympic Quota Places went to Korea’s Park and Australia’s Aspandiyarova. The home shooter Park Minjin, boosted by the numerous spectators following at Changwon’s Final Hall, finished in sixth place with 483.6 (385+98.6) points. At the same time, the Australian shooter Dina Aspandiyarova beat Denmark’s Susanne Meyerhoff in the hurdle for the last Olympic Quota available, pocketing it with a total score of 480.2 (385+95.2) points.

Serbia’s Andrija Zlatic won today’s 10m Air Pistol Men event at the 2011 ISSF Rifle & Pistol World Cup in Changwon, Korea, beating the home shooter Lee.

The 33-year old Pistol shooter climbed from the fourth place he had on the final’s start list by firing 100.9 points throughout the ten-shot final. Zlatic landed on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 688.9 points, securing the Gold medal with a narrow margin of eight tenths of advantage on his followers.

“This is my first World Cup medal ever, I am extremely happy.” The Serbian athlete said right after the match. Competing since 1990 and ranked second in the World in this event, Zlatic had indeed never placed better than fifth in an ISSF World Cup, before.

“I had been winning medals at the World and European Championship, but I had never found my way to an ISSF World Cup podium. I would say I am really satisfied!” Zlatic added, who had won an ISSF World Championship Silver medal last August in Munich.

Climbing in the lead, Zlatic disappointed the home shooter, Korea’s Lee Daemyung, who had started the match in first place after qualification rounds with 589 points. After firing a 9.3 and a 9.2 on his second and third final shots, the 22-year old Korean shooter landed in second place, pocketing the Silver medal with a total score of 688.1 points.

Lee had to fight to get on the second step of the podium. Since the first shots, he fought neck and neck against Ukraine’s Olympian Oleg Omelchuk. The 27-year old Ukrainian athlete held the second place right to the tenth and last shot, when he fired a frustrating 9.8 to Lee’s 10.3, finishing then in third place with a total of 687.9 points and the Bronze medal.

As the other finalists had already secured an Olympic Quota Place before, today’s 3 Olympic Quota Places went to France’s Walter Lapeyre, fifth with a total score of 686.3 points, to Serbia’s Dimitrije Grigic, eighth with 683.4 points and to the 1992 Olympic Champion of Barcelona Kanstantsin Lukashyk of Belarus, ninth with 584 points.

The first ISSF Air Pistol championship was held in 1970. It was a 40 shot course of fire for both the men and the women. In 1982 the men’s course was increased to 60 shots. In 1988 the 10m Air Pistol event first entered the Olympic Games.

The Course of Fire for men is 60 shots in one hour and 45 minutes, each shot placed on a separate target at a range of 10 Meters.

Women have one hour and 15 minutes for 40 shots.

For World-class events the targets are either Electronic; or for paper targets scored by target scoring machines. In clubs or competitions without automatic scoring facilities, sometimes groups of 2, 5 or 10 rounds are fired at a single target. The ISSF dictates the target square should be no less than 17cm x 17cm; the 7,8,9 and 10 rings are black with the 10 ring a mere 11.5 mm across.

The top eight competitors from the main match progress to the “Olympic Final” in which 10 more shots are individually fired and scored, with a maximum of 75 seconds allowed per shot. At the end of each shot, the scores are announced. The score for these 10 shots is marked in tenths of a point and the total added to the first score to make the final result. Even at club level each shot is fired on a separate target.

A Perfect Match Score would be 600 + 109 for a total of 709. However, scoring over 580 in the first round can be considered world class. To date nobody has achieved a perfect score in a major championship or the Olympic Games.

Modern World-class Air Pistols fire a 4.5mm (.177) caliber lead pellet using compressed air from a detachable cylinder or one built into the pistol. Detachable cylinders are often filled from a SCUBA diving tank for the PreCharged Pneumatic Air Guns (PCP) or a similar tank of CO2. Guns with integral cylinders usually contain a charging handle to “pump” the normal atmosphere up to a pressure within the cylinder. The ISSF has several restrictions on the pistols used. Pistols must be fired single shot, with a trigger weight not lighter than 500 grams and 4.5mm (.177″) in caliber. The size and style of the grip, the weight of the pistol, the overall size of the gun, the type of sights, the width of the grip and length of the barrel are also limited. There are also limitations on the competitors’ clothing, shoes, and eyewear.

At the time of writing the average age of the top ten competitors in the ISSF World Ranking is 33, the majority are older with two in their mid 40s. The current world number one, from China, however is a mere 20!

Many Air Pistol shooters also participate in the 50m Pistol event(Free Pistol) .

(BEIJING, August 12) — China’s Tan Zongliang will regret his first and last shot in the final of the Men’s 50m Pistol for a long time.

The 7.9 points from his first shot, the worst among all his shots in the final, wrote off the two-point lead that he gained in the qualification round. In the qualification round, Tan shot a total of 565, while the other five shooters were tied on 563.

Tan’s mistake gave Jin Jong-oh of the Republic of Korea the opportunity to win the gold medal with a final score of 660.4. The silver medal was won by Kim Jong-su of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, who shot a final score of 660.2, while Tan won a consolation bronze with a final score of 659.5.

Jin still gave Tan a chance to win the gold medal though. Kim only scored 8.2 on his last shot, which meant second-placed Tan could still win gold if he scored more than 10.1 on his last shot. Tan, however, could only shoot 9.2 and instead of winning gold, Tan bid farewell to silver as well because Kim overtook Tan with an outstanding 10.5 on his last shot.

The bronze medal is 37-year-old Tan’s first medal from four Olympics.