Review of 2023 ISSF competition: Li wins men’s 25m rapid fire pistol world title with world record – but is beaten in World Cup Final by Germany’s Peter

China’s Li Yuehong set a world record of 39 points as he won the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol title at the ISSF World Championships held during August in the Azerbaijan capital of Baku.

The 34-year-old from Jinan, bronze medallist in this event at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics, thus added a first individual world title to the two world bronzes he had earned in this event at the 2010 and 2014 Championships in Munich and Granada respectively.

Li’s magnificent performance also earned him a quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Another highly experienced competitor, 32-year-old Clement Bessaguet of France, scored 30 to add a second world silver to one he had secured at the previous year’s World Championships in Cairo.

Bessaguet, European champion in 2022, had also won the European Games title earlier in the summer and will carry high hopes into his home Olympics in 2024.

Germany’s 23-year-old world No.3 Florian Peter of Germany took bronze with 34 hits.

“Before the competition I never thought I would have just the one miss, that was not in my mind,” Li said.

There were also quota places for Dai Yoshioka of Japan, who finished fourth with 19 hits.

Denys Kushnirov of Ukraine finished sixth with 13 shots, but also earned a quota place.

Estonia also have a quota place for next year, courtesy of Peeter Olesk, who finished eighth but did not qualify for the final.

Bessaguet had a very consistent season, finishing on the podium in four of the six World Cup events.

In Cairo he took silver behind Italy’s Massimo Spinnela and in Bophal he was second to China’s Zhang Jueming. After winning the title in Lima he prefigured the World Championship result by finishing as runner-up to Li in the Baku World Cup.

France’s prospects for the home Olympics were further bolstered by the victory in the final World Cup of the season in Rio de Janeiro by the 28-year-old Tokyo 2020 champion and Rio 2016 bronze medallist Jean Quiquampoix.

The opening World Cup in Jakarta had seen a win for Nikita Chiryukin of Kazakhstan.

Li almost accomplished a notable double at the season’s concluding World Cup Final in Doha – but had to give best to an inspired performance by the up-and-coming talent of Peter.

The young German, top qualifier, made a stupendous start in the men’s final, getting halfway to beating Li’s world record of 39 out of 40 as he scored with his first 20 shots.

He was never headed from start to finish.

Given the requirements of the discipline – with just four seconds allowed for each batch of five shots, which had to score at least 9.7 points to register as a hit – it was a tremendous performance.

But the amiable German was not able to maintain perfection, dropping a shot in his fifth sequence and two more in the next to reach 27 out of 30.

A second successive five out of five brought Li level with the German on 27, but Peter – who made regular entries in his notebook between each batch of shots – responded ideally to score a maximum on his penultimate phase, while Li faltered with three misses.

Peter thus carried a lead of three into the final sequence, and scored the three he required to secure victory with a total of 35, with Li concluding the event with a score of four to reach 33.

After scoring only two in his sixth sequence of shots to total 23 out of 30, India’s 21-year-old Anish Anish looked likely to be the unlucky fourth-placed shooter as the Czech Republic’s Matej Rampula, a superior qualifier, required only to score one hit to his tally of 22.

To his dismay, however, Rampula, who had shot so consistently up to this point, failed to score a single shot and made an unhappy exit, leaving the Indian to celebrate becoming the first man from his country to finish in the top three in this event in a World Cup Final.

For once Bessaguet, who had come into this competition as world No.2, had a relative off-day as he finished fifth out of the six finalists.

Asked by ISSF TV about what he was noting down between his shooting sequences, Peter replied: “The scores, the timing of the first, and little notes like when I am too slow on the first shot or too hot on the trigger.

“So it helps me to analyse the series so I can do it better in the next series.

“It helps me to stay focused and not be distracted by the surroundings – so a double benefit for me.”

On the question of whether his hopes were beginning to rise for a world record when he reached the halfway point without blemish, he added:

“To be honest I didn’t expect too much from the World Cup Final because I just started training rapid fire pistol again one week ago. After the World Championship I had a two-month break and some altitude training so I was just starting over again.

“So I am happily surprised by the result of this competition! Now I will keep on training and preparing for the qualification competitions for the Olympic Games.”

Li commented graciously – and in English: “Actually I did everything well but Peter did a very good job, so for today it was OK.”

Anish was exuberant after his bronze. “This has been a really great year for me,” he said. “I won a first World Cup medal and recently won a quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympics and now here it’s a first World Cup Final medal for India in the rapid fire.”