The Republic of Korea finished in the spotlights again, at the 51st ISSF World Championship in Granada, Spain, as Kim Jun Hong claimed the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men title beating the German hope Oliver Geis.
First match, first title. Kim Jun Hong, 23, of the Republic of Korea won today's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men Gold, at his first participation in an ISSF World Championship.
Kim had already diplayed his excellent skills at ISSF World Cup stage in Beijing, eralier this year, where he had equalled the 593-point world record during the qualifications, eventually finishing the final in fourth place.
Today, he shot solidly right to the end of the match, beating Germany's 23-year old Oliver Geis 33 to 30 hits to finish atop of the podium and to secure a Rio 2016 Quota Place.
Geis claimed the Silver and the second of the two Olympic slots up for grabs at today's final, recording his best achievement in career.
The Bronze medal went to Li Yuehong, 25, from the People's Republic of China, who scored 28 hits in the final finishing in third, the same placement he had achieved in 2010, at the last ISSF World Championship in all Shooting events held in Munich.
The favorite Christian Reitz, 27, from Germany – a world record setter currently ranked first in the world – did not make it to the individual medals, today. After leading the qualifications with 590 points (6 points ahead of the closest opponents), he was the first to be eliminated in the new elimination-style final, where all the athletes start-off from zero again. The qualification scores are indeed not carried forward into the final anymore, following the new ISSF rules introduced after the 2012 Olympic Games.
Thanks to a team score of 1745, Reitz climbed upon today's podium along with Oliver Geis and Aaron Sauter, to receive the teams Gold. The teams Silver went to the Czech Republic (Martin Strnad - 4th in the individual match, Martin Podhrasky and Tomas Tehan) with 1737 points. The Russian Federation (Alexander Alifirenko, Alexei Klimov, Leonid Ekimov) claimed the teams Bronze with 1734 points.