Chinese Mai claims men's 50m Pistol Gold in Gabala

Day-3 of the ISSF Rifle, Pistol and Shotgun World Cup in Gabala was opened by the 50m Pistol Men event, won by the 2013 Asian Champion Mai Jiajie (27), from the People's Republic of China.

Mai, who had never won a world cup stage before and whose last participation in a final match happend in 2013, scored 565 points during the qualifications, and then marked 194.7 points in the final to finish atop of today's podium.

The Chinese athlete won with over 3 points of advantage on Daehun Park of the Republic of Korea (20) - ranked 10th in the world – who collected today's Silver with 191.4 points after qualifying for the final match with 567 points. Today's turned out to be Park's second world cup silver of the season, after the one he had won on his home turf in Changwon (KOR) last April.

Republic of Korea celebrated twice, today, as their second finalist, Kim Cheongyong (18), made it to the third step of podium, collecting his first international medal ever with 169.9 points (and 563 qualification points).

Following the medallists, it was world's #6 and current Asian Games title holder Jutu Rai of India (27) who took the fourth place with 150.1 points. He was followed by Spain's Pablo Carrera (29), a two-time world cup bronze medallist, who made it to the final with 563 qualification points, and eventually finished in fifth with 128.5 points, securing a Rio 2016 Olympic quota spot for his country.

Turkey's Yusuf Dikec (42) took 6th place with 106.5 points after qualifying with 563 points, while the 2010 World Champion Tomoyuki Matsuda of Japan (39) - who had qualified in the lead with 568 points – ended up in 7th with 90.1 points after the tenth final's shot.

India's Prakash Nanjappa (39) followed them placing in 8th, as he was eliminated after the eighth final shot with 70.1 points. Nevertheless, the Indian athlete won the applauses of the spectators crowding Gabala's finals hall. Ranked 52nd in the world, he had only made it once into an ISSF world cup final match in this event, before. Today, with 567 points, he turned out to be the second-best athlete in the qualifications, and he earned a Rio 2016 Olympic quota place for India, which has now collected a total of 6 spots.

/By AzerTac/