Junghaenel edges de Nicolo for men's 50m rifle prone gold
Baku, June 18, AZERTAC
German Henri Junghaenel produced a fabulous finish to topple Marco de Nicolo of Italy and win gold in the men's 50m rifle prone at Baku Shooting Centre today.
The German shot 10.8 and 10.6 with his final two shots to leapfrog de Nicolo after a hard-fought final that had been close all the way.
Junghaenel's strong finish earned him a score of 208.5, which put him 1.2 ahead of silver medallist de Nicolo's score of 207.3, and earned the German a quota place for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games next summer.
"It is pretty awesome," the 27-year-old said after winning gold. "The event was amazing, really well organised and it was great fun to be here. The most important thing actually was the quota place, more than the gold medal."
Reigning Olympic champion Sergei Martynov of Belarus led after six shots and kept in touch with the top two before a poor 16th shot of 9.7 meant he dropped back and had to settle for bronze.
After 14 shots, the trio were separated by just 0.5 and set up for a fascinating three-way battle for gold.
But Martynov's errant 16th shot let Junghaenel and de Nicolo pull away, and the German went on to emerge victorious.
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