Home shooter Istvan Peni sparked huge celebration at the European Championships 10m Rifle and Pistol in Gyor, Hungary as he secured one of the two Paris 2024 Olympic quota places in the 10m men air rifle event.
He took silver behind Patrik Jany of Slovakia, with the other quota place going to Poland’s fourth-placed Maciej Kowalewicz.
Earlier, Germany’s Anna Janssen had won the 10m air rifle women’s title at the European Championships 10m Rifle and Pistol in Gyor and claimed one of the two Olympic quota places on offer, with the other going to France’s fourth-placed Oceanne Muller.
For Jany, 26, who finished seventh at the Tokyo Olympics, this was the third European title in as many years. He won the 10m air rifle gold at Hamar in 2022, and took silver last year in Tallinn, a performance that earned him an Olympic quota.
He led from start to finish, totalling 251.2, with 27-year-old Peni, who won this title in 2020 and 2021, taking second place on 249.7 having finished second in qualifying.
Bronze went to Austria’s 39-year-old Martin Strempfl, top qualifier, who had earned a quota place in finishing fourth at last year’s European Games in Wroclaw.
That meant a Paris invitation to 24-year-old Kowalewicz.
Norway’s Jon-Hermann Hegg finished fifth, one place ahead of Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine, with Lucas Kryzs, mixed team silver medallist, placing seventh and Henrik Larssen of Sweden eighth.
Team gold went to Norway, with silver going to Ukraine and bronze to Croatia.
Janssen, the 22-year-old world number one, has won individual World Cup gold and bronze already this season, and having claimed the European junior title in this Hungarian city six years earlier and she added the senior version after leading throughout the elimination rounds.
After finishing with a 10.8 to total 253.1 points, Janssen’s mask of concentration dissolved into a delighted smile. She earned gold by a margin of 1.8 points from Poland’s Julia Piotrowska, with Switzerland’s 21-year-old Audrey Gogniat earning bronze – her first senior European medal.
The young Swiss shooter had been 0.6 points behind Muller in fourth place as the remaining quartet prepared for the fifth elimination round, earned a place in the last three despite trailing Muller by 0.3 points at that point.
The gap widened to 0.6 as Muller shot 10.5 and Gogniat 10.2. But the second shots of the round saw differing fortunes as the Swiss shooter scored a 10.8 and Muller dropped to a 9.4 to finish 0.2 adrift in fourth place.
Perhaps the 21-year-old French shooter had been discomposed at securing the second Olympic quota in the previous round. Once Norway’s defending champion Jeanette Hegg Duestad – who had equalled Muller’s 2022 European record of 634.2 in qualifying – went out in fifth place it left only two of the four remaining athletes who had not previously secured a quota.
Piotrowska had ticked that box in finishing fourth at the 2022 World Championships, and Gogniat had also achieved a quota in finishing sixth at last year’s World Championships in Baku.
One round earlier there had been disappointment for home shooter Eszter Meszaros as she made her exit in sixth place. She had been preceded to the exit by Serbia’s Teodora Vukojevic and Marlene Pribitzer of Austria.
Duestad’s outstanding performance in qualifying, allied to those of compatriots Jenny Stene and Pernille Nor-Woll, earned Norway team gold ahead of Hungary and Poland.
Gold in the 10m air pistol mixed team event went to the Ukrainian pairing of Olena Kostevych, the 38-year-old Athens 2004 champion, and Oleh Omelchuk.
They beat Austria’s world number four Sylvia Steiner and Richard Zechmeister 17-11.
Germany’s female ISSF World Athlete of the Year Doreen Vennemkamp and Michael Schwald earned bronze with a 16-6 win over Veronika Schejbalova and Jindrich Dubovy.
Fuente: http://www.issf-sports.org
