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Serbia and Germany win rifle golds at European Junior 10m Championship

European Championship Junior 10m · Osijek, CRO

Titles went to Aleksa Rakonjac and Theresa Schnell in Osijek, Croatia.

After coming up short in mixed team competition, Aleksa Rakonjac and Theresa Schnell were victorious in the men's and women's individual air rifle finals at the European Junior 10m Championship in Osijek, Croatia.

Rakonjac, along with his sister Iva, took bronze in the mixed team event, but would go one better this time. The Serbian would lead the men's final from start to finish, closely followed - but never surpassed - by Patrick Entner from Austria, with their total scores finishing 249.8 to 248.4.

Tommaso Roberto from Italy won a shoot-off for the bronze medal, at the expense of Ivan Tkalenko of Ukraine.

Schnell suffered defeat in the mixed gold medal match with teammate Florian Beer, but ensured this time she would stand at the top of the podium in the women's individual event.

It was a close three-way battle between Schnell, 16-year-old Swiss sensation Emely Jaeggi and Pernille Nor-Woll of Norway for the majority of the contest, with the German only moving away when the field whittled down to four as Nor-Woll lost contact.

Jaeggi, who was trailing in third, had the strongest elimination stage of any athlete, but was unable to cut Schnell's lead enough, who held on with a total of 251.4 to the Swiss' 251.2. Nor-Woll won the bronze medal ahead of Croatian Anamarija Turk.

Finally, the mixed team air pistol title went to Italy - courtesy of Alessandra Fait and Francesco Rutigliani, comfortably defeating Marta Novovic and Marko Ninkovic 17-9 in the gold medal match.

Ukraine's Yuliia Isachenko and Maksym Himon delivered a rare 16-0 defeat in the bronze medal match, at the expense of Mariami Marshava and Giorgi Mumladze of Georgia.

ISSF