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Competing in the 50m Rifle Prone Men event at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, Australia’s Potent equalled the 600-point world record, winning Gold on the lined of his home range.

Australia’s Warren Potent won the applauses of the final hall of the Olympic Shooting Range of Sydney, today, by winning Gold at the 50m Rifle Prone Men final.

Spotlights were on the home shooter since the qualification rounds, as the Olympic Bronze medallist of Beijing had equalled the World Record to walk into the final in first with 600 points.

Nobody could then stop him during the medal match. In spite of being close-followed by India’s Joydeep Karmakar, Potent shot in the lead from the first right to the last shot, ending up on the highest step of the podium with an unreachable final score of 703.7 (600+103.7) points.

“It’s great to win a Gold medal here, on the lines of my home range. – Exclaimed Potent after the award ceremony, celebrated by a number of Australian fans - This is my second time on the highest step of this podium. I had won my first ISSF World Cup Gold medal here in Sydney, in 2007!”

“I was really nervous this morning, before shooting the record. – Kept on explaining Potent – This is my home range, but it’s never easy… I had been closed to it several time, but I had never scored 600 points in an international match before, for some reasons.”

“The final itself hasn’t been that easy too: the way in which the wind affects the shots here in the final hall is quite different than in the qualification building.” Concluded Potent, smiling as somebody reminded him that the 2007 World Cup Gold medal had been his first step on the road leading to the Olympic Podium of Beijing.

“I am now looking forward to the ISSF World Championship in Munich, – He said  - I heard that more than 2500 shooters are going to be there, because of the Olympic Quotas… That’s the first Qualification for the 2012 Games in London, it’s going to be challenging!”

The Silver medal went to India’s Joydeep Karmakar, 30-year old, a first time finalist. The Shooter from Calcutta had indeed participated in a single ISSF World Cup Stage, in Resende (BRA), four years ago, placing far behind the medal placements.

Karmakar made it to the final round with an excellent qualification score of 599 points, just one point lower than the world record equalled by Potent. By shooting 103.4 points during the final, he could not make up the disadvantage he had from the leader. His total score of 702.4 points landed him in second place, winning his first international medal ever.

“This was my first time in an ISSF World Cup final round… I have been shooting for fifteen years, but I could not reach these results, something was missing on the psychological side, which is really important in shooting. “ Said the Indian athlete right before the award ceremony.

“I started to dedicate more and more time to shooting in 2007, and these are the results. – continued Karmakar – My next goals? The Olympic Games, of course! Since Bindra’s victory at the 2008 Games, shooting has become more and more popular in India. He showed us that it is possible to get there. And I will try to get there!”

It was the expert Belarusian shooter Sergey Martynov who took today’s Bronze medal, ending up in third place with 700.7 points. The three-time Olympic Bronze medallist, and ten-time World Cup Gold medallist, shot 103.7 points in the final match, overtaking the American shooter Michael McPhail to finish on the podium with a total score of 700.7 points.

USA’s McPhail, 28-year old, missed the podium by a few tenths. The American athlete, who had claimed two World Cup Bronzes last year, could not recover from a 9.0 he fired on his sixth final shot, and ended up in fourth place with 700.5 points. Following him, Switzerland’s Marcel Buerge took the fifth spot with 699.2 points, while the second American finalist Eric Uptagrafft landed in sixth place with 697.1 points.

Today’s 10m Air Pistol Women final has been a stage of success for both Korea and Australia. Korea’s Park Minjin won Gold at her first try: she had never competed in an ISSF international match before. Australia won its first medal thanks to Dina Aspandiyarova who came back to victory in an ISSF competition by claiming today’s Silver. She was the first Australian shooter to enter a final, during this ISSF World Cup in Sydney.

The whole Korean Shooting team sang their national anthem loud, at the end of today’s 10m Air Pistol Women Final, at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney. Their 22-year old teammate Park Minjin had just won the first Gold medal of her career.

The young shooter surprised everybody by winning Gold at her first try, outdoing former Olympic medallists and ISSF World Cup multi-medallists with apparent ease.

Park walked into the final round in fourth place with 382 points after the qualifications, two points behind the leader Chen Yan, of China and tied with the second Chinese finalist, the Olympic Champion of Beijing Guo Wenjun, currently ranked first in the world in this event.

Shooting consistently throughout the whole match, Park climbed and climbed, bouncing in the lead thanks to a final score of 102.2 points. Together with her qualification score, she totalized 484.2 points, securing Gold with a safe margin on her followers.

Coming in second, Dina Aspandiyarova won the first medal for the host country, Australia. The 33-year old Olympic finalist of Sydney 2000 ended up in second place with a total score of 481.7 (383+98.7) points, winning her first World Cup medal in this event.

Aspandiyarova was followed in third by the 2008 Olympic Champion Guo Wenjun, 25, from China. The world ranking leader, who had qualified tied with Park with 382 points, finished in third with a total score of 481.0 points, after shooting 99.0 points during the final. She had won her last World Cup medal in 2009, when she had closed the season with a Gold medal in Milan.

Two of the best pistol shooters of the World, Bulgaria’s Maria Grozdeva and Serbia’s Jasna Sekaric, ten Olympic medals between the two, finished in fourth and seventh place, with 480.7 and 477.2 points, respectively.

The second Korean finalist Jung Jeehae and the young Indian champion Shweta Chaudhry placed in fifth and sixth place, with 480.6 and 479.8 points, respectively.

The Olympic Champion Jin Johng Oh fired 12 shots during today’s 50m Pistol Men final round. After loosing the duel for Gold against China’s Lin, he had to pass through a shoot-off to secure Silver, but one shot was not enough to grant him the second step of the podium.

It was the last shot that decided today’s 50m Pistol Men final at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney, where the 2008 Olympic Champion of Beijing Jin Jong Oh of Korea and the 2007 World Cup Final winner Lin Zhongzai of China duelled right to the end to secure the highest step of the podium.

China’s Lin, 28-year old, a three-time World Cup Gold medallist, had started the round in the lead with 567 points after the qualifications, with one point of a head start over the Korean champion Jin Jong Oh, who walked into the match with 566 points.

During the ten-shot final, the Olympic Champion Jin shortened up the gap from the top of the scoreboard, taking advantage of a frustrating 7.2 scored by Lin.

After the ninth shot, Lin only had one tenth of a point of margin over Jin left, and the tenth and last final shot turned into a sort of shoot-off for the brightest medal.

Lin shooting first fired an 8.9, which usually would have been not enough to keep up with the Olympic Champion. But this time Jin did not take advantage of his opponent’s defiance, shooting a disappointing 8.1 that landed him in second place.

Lin Zhongzai, looking incredulous at the scores monitor, claimed Gold with a total score of 662.7 points.

Left in second place with a total score of 661.7 points, Jin Jong Oh found himself tied with the American shooter Daryl Szarenski, 42, who had started the match in first place, then sliding down on the scoreboard.

One shot was not enough to break the tie between the two contenders: both Jin and Szarenski scored a 10.0, and a further shot was needed to decide the podium placements. Eventually Jin gave his best, outscoring Szarenski by 10.5 to 9.2 points and securing the Silver medal with a total score of 661.9+10.0+10.5 points. Szarenski took the Bronze medal with 661.9+10.0+9.2 points.

Serbia’s Damir Mikec closed the round in fourth place with 652.3 points, followed by the two Russian teammates Denis Koulakov and Sergey Chervyakovsiy in fifth and sixth place with 648.9 and 648.7 points, respectively. Zhang Tian of China ended up in seventh with 644.1 points, while the first time finalist Lim Swee Hon of Singapore closed in eighth place with 640.0 points.

The 2008 10m Air Rifle Women Olympic Champion Emmons of Czech Republic came back to an ISSF World Cup after being away for awhile. Shooting in the lead since the first shot, she won today’s 10m Air Rifle Women final at the ISSF World Cup in Sydney.

The 2008 Olympic Champion of Beijing Katerina Emmons came back competing in an ISSF World Cup after having her daughter Julia, and she came back in the best possible way, by winning the 10m Air Rifle Women Gold medal. Making into the final with an outstanding qualification score of 399 points (one point far from the World Record she already holds), Emmons claimed Gold by shooting the highest final of the day (104.1 points), ending up on the highest step of the podium with a total score of 503.1 points.

Competing in front of a crowded final hall, at the 2000 Olympic Shooting Range of Sydney, the Czech Champion stepped on the podium holding on her baby daughter Julia, and received her first ISSF World Cup Gold medal since 2008.

Malaysia’s first time medallist, Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi, secured Silver by climbing the scoreboard all the way up from the eighth place. The 27-year old athlete had squeezed into the final round passing through a shoot-off, with a qualification score of 396 hits. Then, her final score of 103.8 points landed her in second place, to receive the first ISSF medal of her sport career , with a total of 499.8 points.

Also qualified for today’s final through a shoot-off with a score of 396 points, USA’s Olympic Finalist of Beijing Jamie Beyerle secured Bronze with a total score of 499.6 points. Shooting solidly, she scored 103.6 points throughout the final match, finishing just two tenths of a point far from the Silver medallist.

The 2008 and 2009 World Cup Final winner Wu Liuxi of China, currently ranked third in the World, did not make it to the podium, today. The 25-year old athlete ended up in fourth place with 499.2 points, missing the medals by a few determinant tenths. She was followed by Iran’s first time finalist Mahlagha Jambozorg, 18, who closed the round in fifth place after outdoing China’s Liu Bo in a shoot-off by 10.0 to 8.9 points.

The two teammates Lee Kyerim and Gu Sura of Korea, both competing in an ISSF international final for the first time, placed in seventh a and eighth place with 497.5 and 497.0 points, respectively.

20.03-28.03.2010