After dominating the senior match, the People’s Republic of China also dominated the 25m Rapid Fire Pistol Men Junior final, placing two shooter on the podium and writing two new World Records.
Indeed, making his first appearance in an ISSF competition, 16-year-old Zhu Haojie ruled the final with four perfect rounds, three 4-hit series and only scoring 3 hits in the very last one, when he was already sure he was going to take gold. His final score of 35 hits raise the bar of the World Record, besting the 32 signed by France’s Jean Quiquampoix in Munich (GER) in 2015.
Competing on his home turf, Republic of Korea’s 20-year-old Lee Jaekyon grabbed the silver medal with 29 hits, while Zhu’s teammate Cheng Zhipeng (19) completed the podium in 3rd place with 24.
Just outside of the medal positions, United States’ Henry Turner Leverett (17) pulverized the 30th place he nailed at the 2017 ISSF Junior World Championship in Suhl (GER), placing 4th with 21 hits and losing a shoot-off against Cheng.
Despite opening his match with a perfect 5-hit round, Ukraine’s 19-year-old Maksym Horodynets closed in 5th position, mostly because of an unfortunate 0-hit series. The young Ukrainian signed off with 16 hits.
The second Korean shooter in the final — first-time participant Lee Gunhyeok (19) — was the first athlete eliminated from the match, taking 6th position with 12 hits and losing another tie-breaking shoot-off against Horodynets.
Zhu and Cheng also climbed on the first step of the team podium alongside their teammate Pan Junchen, setting a new World Record with 1747 total points. The team silver medal went to the Republic of Korea, who totalized 1719 points, while Poland took bronze with 1706.
The ISSF World Championship in Changwon (KOR) will continue tomorrow with three more finals: the 50m Rifle 3 Positions Women Junior, scheduled at 12:45 pm (UTC+9:00), the Skeet Men Junior, taking place at 2:45 pm, and the Skeet Women, scheduled at 4:00 pm.
Footage of the Olympic events will be distributed worldwide via EBU and broadcasted live on the ISSF website, on the Federation’s Livestream channel and on its official Facebook page.
Live results, news and updates will be available on www.issf-sports.org and on all ISSF social media platforms: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Weibo and Youku.