The 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men event of the 2016 ISSF World Cup Final in Bologna (ITA) was another stage of success for the world’s #1 Christian Reitz.
The 29-year old German shooter, who walked out of Rio 2016 with a gold medal around his neck two months ago, sealed the season by winning the world cup title with a score of 34 hits.
Reitz turned out to be unreachable, today, in spite of a malfunction during stage 2 of the qualifications. Rio 2016 Bronze medalist Li Yuehong of the People’s Republic of China scored 31 hits to secure today’s silver medal. The three-time World Cup champion Alexei Klimov of the Russian Federation marked 26 hits, taking the Bronze.
The best Rapid Fire shooters of the world made it to the final today: the title defender Zhang Fusheng (CHN), placed in 4th (22 hits), like he did in Rio de Janeiro last August. Italy’s Riccardo Mazzetti (6th in Rio de Janeiro) took today’s 5th place with 17 hits, finishing ahead of Spain’s Jorge Llames, 6th with 11 hits.
“Life has been crazy after the Games: I had a lot of interviews, conferences and speeches,” Reitz said after today’s medal ceremony.
“A few weeks ago, I started training again for this World Cup Final. It has been a nice competition, and it’s great to win this Cup,” added the German shooter, who had already won a world cup final in 2011, in Wroclaw, Poland. He is indeed not new to this podium: since 2008, he also secured three silver and one bronze in this competition.
“Now that it’s done I will concentrate on the air pistol event. I will compete in the German Bundesliga - that’s literally tomorrow - before closing the 2016 season.”
But the highlight of the year is yet to come. “I have some big plans for December,” he explained, “I am getting married with my fiancé. We will fly to the Caribbean, and I will finally take some time off.”