The Portuguese athlete won a thrilling match beating the 2010 Wolrd Champion Matsuda of Japan at the last three shots, collecting his second consecutive Gold medal in Munich, or his third world cup medal back to back considering he had finished on the podium at the previous world cup stage in Fort Benning.
Two of the best Pistol shooters of the world fought atop of the scoreboard of today's 10m Air Pistol Men final, during the ISSF World Cup in Munich, Germany.
Portugal's 50-year old Joao Costa, who had won the 50m Pistol Men final earlier this week, duelled against the 2010 Wolrd Champion Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan right to the end of the match, in a great show for the spectators crowding Munich's finals hall.
Costa started off in the lead with three excellent shots - 10.5, 10.7 and 10.4 - and continued with two consistent series. But the expert Matsuda shot solidly, catching him up after the fourth series, and eventually overtaking him by a few tenths to move in the lead at the 10th shot.
From there on, the two finalists shot head and head right to the end. Costa did not give up, and as Matsuda fired a frustrating 9.5 on his 17th shot, he took advantage of it moving back into the lead, where he closed the match with 201.4 points, and 1.0 point of advantage on the Japanese athlete, taking the silver with 200.4 points.
Costa collected his second consecutive Gold at the ISSF World Cup in Munich, and his third world cup medal back to back, considering that he had pocketed an air pistol bronze in Fort Benning, two weeks ago.
“I will have to carry an extra luggage on my flight back to Portugal, to carry these medals back home.” Joked today's winner, after the award ceremony.
“This is not normal, it's an exceptional outcome for me. There's a lot of tension around for the Olympic quotas, I had already secured one, so everything turned out to be a little bit easier for me.” Costa added.
“70 or 80% of a match is a mental thing. Today, I was totally relaxed, and that's the best condition to compete. I am qualified for the next Games, and I waked into the final without thinking too much of the medals, so I enjoyed the match right to the last shot.”
Sun Yang of the People's Republic of China, 22, a young up-and-coming shooter who collected an Asian Championship junior silver medal in 2013, took today's Bronze medal.
In his first appearance in a world cup final 8, he could not match up Costa's and Matsuda's scores, but he managed to keep everybody else behind him, clinching the third place as well as an Olympic quota place for China with 177.3 points.
Sun disappointed India's 27-year old Gurpreet Singh, 27, who claimed his second fourth place in two days, after yesterday's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men final.
But if yesterday the Indian shooter had lost the Quota by three hits, he clinched that today, securing a spot at the Rio 2016 Olympics with 154.8 points.
The 2010 Asian Champion Lee Daemyung, 26, from the Republic of Korea, celebrated with him, as he booked a ticket to Rio by finishing in fifth with 136.0 points, after a close neck and neck battle against the same Singh.
Dimitrije Grgic of Serbia, 30, scored 115.5 points to finish in sixth today. He was followed by Croatia's first-time world cup round finalist Uros Kacavenda, 31, who took the seventh place with 95.7 points after the 10th final's shot. Russia's pistol shooter Leonid Ekimov, 27, ranked 23rd in the world in this event, was the first to be eliminated after the eighth final shot with 76.6 points.