Claiming his second medal in just three days, the Republic of Korea's
Kim Cheongyong won the men's 10m Air Pistol gold at the ISSF World Cup in Gabala, Azerbaijan. The medal also gained him an Olympic quota place.
Last Tuesday, Kim had also won the 50m Pistol bronze. Kim, 18, has won almost as many medals in the last three days as he had won in the rest of his career - three (silver at the Youth Olympics, gold at the Asian Games and at the Asian Championship).
Kim closed on 199.0 points, overcoming Kazakhstan's
Vladimir Issachenko the silver medalist, just before the final shot.
In the second part of the final, Issachenko, 32, had mostly been in the lead. On the second-last shot, though, he hit a 7.8 that let Kim take over Issachenko, and the first spot.
Issachenko came in 2nd, just 1.6 points behind Kim (197.4 points).
Slovakia's
Juraj Tuzinsky, who had been leading the final in its early stages, finally took the bronze with 178.9 points
Tuzinsky, 30, had never been on a World Cup podium before.
In addition to Kim's Korea, the other quota-winning country was Kazakhstan: Issachenko, and
Rashid Yunusmetov secured indeed two tickets to Rio2016 for their country.
The 36-year-old Yunusmetov, who had taken part in the Beijing Olympics in 2008, came in 5th (138.6 points), just behind Russia's
Denis Koulakov.
Koulakov, 32, had started well. He scored the opening round's highest score (30.8), and then kept fighting for the first positions. But an 8.1 made him leave the competition in 4th (158.1).
Spain's
Pablo Carrera (116.8), USA's
Will Brown (96.9), and China's
Pu Qifeng (76.5) completed the leaderboard in 6th, 7th, and 8th.
"I feel very good," says gold medalist Kim. "I was very focused on the competition."
"Now I want to go home."