A hectic year of ISSF competition in 2023 saw shooters involved in two Grands Prix, 13 World Cups, the Junior World Championships in Changwon, the 53rd World Championships in Baku and the last hoorah of the World Cup Final in Doha. Athletes across all disciplines produced outstanding performances that augured well for 2024, where the Paris Olympics and Paralympics shimmer on the horizon.
Alexander Schmirl claimed an emotional triumph in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event at the World Championships in Baku and earned Austria one of eight Paris 2024 quotas available on the day.
The 34-year-old earned his first world title as he finished comfortably ahead on 462.6 points, with the Czech Republic’s 2022 European champion Petr Nymbursky of Czech Republic taking silver with 459.2.
Akhil Sheoran of India, in his first World Championships, claimed bronze with 450.0 and earned a quota place.
With Nymbursky and fourth-placed Serhiy Kulish of Ukraine – the defending champion – having already secured quota spots for their federations, the remaining two went to Switzerland’s Christophe Duerr and Aleksi Leppa of Finland, respectively fifth and sixth.
“I had a perfect qualification, it was a very good day, I was very focused, so it was easy going into the final,” Schmirl said.
“I have been unlucky this season, I missed it three times by 0.1 or 0.2 and I am happy to have the quota place but for me the greatest success in shooting sports is to be world champion because there are so many competitors.”
Duerr and Schmirl had set the pace early with Kulish and Nymbursky leading the pursuers.
But with a poor final series in the kneeling position, Duerr allowed Schmirl to go into a two-point lead after 15 shots with 156.1. Kulish lay in third place, a further 1.5 adrift.
After the prone series, Schmirl had extended his lead and Sheoran had moved up from sixth to second.
After the first standing series, Schmirl moved farther ahead with Nymbursky taking over second place from Sheoran.
Schmirl showed his first signs of nerves in the second series with his advantage over Nymbursky being reduced to 4.1.
Sheoran went into the penultimate shot with a 0.5-lead over Nymbursky, but the Indian faltered with a 9.5 and Nymbursky’s 10.1 saw him claim silver by just a tenth of a point.
Schmirl had led by a comfortable 3.3 going into the final shot, and a 9.2 guaranteed him the gold.
Like Schmirl, France’s Lucas Kryzs earned his first global title in 2023 – although this landmark achievement happened for him at the age of 22 as he earned gold amidst high drama at the World Cup Final in Doha.
Kryzs, a member of the French team who had earned world silver in this discipline in Cairo the year before, lost and then regained his lead over China’s Liu Yukun in the space of the final three shots.
Kryzs led the men’s final by 2.1 points going into the concluding elimination phase of the standing competition but saw his advantage trimmed to 0.1 after scoring a 9.8.
Liu – who had won the final World Cup of the season in Rio de Janeiro – then took the lead with his 43rd of the 45 scheduled shots, an outstanding 10.8, with the young French shooter’s improvement to 10.5 being insufficient to keep him in front.
With two shots remaining Jiri Privratsky of the Czech Republic – winner of the World Cup events in Lima and Baku – became the unlucky man who finished one place outside the medals.
But the tension told on Liu, however, as he shot a 9.4 with his penultimate shot and Kryzs scored 10.0 to regain his lead by 0.9 points, 455.2 to 454.3.
Liu raised his game again with his 45th and final shot, scoring 10.7 to total 465.0, but it was still not enough to take gold as Kryzs remained steady on 10.0 to claim the title by 0.2, marking his achievement with a clenching of his right fist.
Jon-Hermann Hegg of Norway, who had led after the kneeling phase, took bronze on 451.1.
“It was not easy with a very high level in the final,” Kryzs told ISSF TV.
“I was near the top at the start. My prone was not of the best but good enough to keep me there.
“As for the standing, it was difficult, but I did enough to win in the end.
“Now we will be working hard for Paris 2024 – and we will see what happens there.”
Hegg, so often strong on the final section of this event, gave an indication of how tough it is to compete efficiently with so much at stake:
“When there is not much pressure the standing is good for me, but today I got a lot of tension in my legs and it was hard to deal with it. Today though it ended up well.”
World champion Schmirl was the first man out of the final in eighth place.
The 50m rifle 3 positions titles at the three opening World Cups in Jakarta, Cairo and Bophal were won respectively by Hungary’s Zalan Pekler, Aishwary Pratap Singh Tomar of India and Du Linshu of China.
