Machibet Live6th WUC Shooting Sport –Day 2: the Day of their Life! - FISU

BYDGOSZCS – On the menu of the second competition day at the 6th World University Shooting Sport Championship in Poland, again 4 events were scheduled, each time individual and team competition. For three gold medallists, it was really the day of their life.

We start with the extraordinary performance in men’s 10m Air Pistol of the young Dario Di Martino of the Pegaso Telematic University in Naples where he studies economics. This young man of 21 who was the European junior champion in Odense (2013) and a triple silver medallist at the World Junior Championships, made a great performance in beating the world record in the discipline with a total of 206.6 while the current record is 206 pts. But curiously enough, this record will not be approved by the International Federation, since ISSF considers it should not recognize FISU world records as the World University Championships are not open to everyone, but only limited to student-athletes. “It is a day where everything worked for me. But that has nothing to do with chance because like many other shooters I trained really hard. Competing is stress, but today I think even with closed eyes, I would have marked the bull’s eye!” In any case the Korean Eunsuk Koh and the Czech Jindrich Dubovy, 2nd and 3rd and yet very reputable shooters, had no chance to compete with the Italian shooter. Korea took revenge in the team competition mounting the highest podium ahead of Italy and Poland.

The day of their lives … It certainly was the case also for Sosa Lyndon (LUX) who won a historic gold medal in men’s trap. The concentration of this math student at the University of Luxembourg in the final who opposed him against the unfortunate runner-up Andreas Makris (CYP) was impressive but it was a great reward for an athlete whose studies remain the main priority: “It’s impossible to become a professional shooter in Luxembourg”, he noted, “although I am supported by the Olympic Committee that covers 90% of my costs. I train three to four times a week, while I compete against professional opponents. From now until the end of this academic year, I‘ll rest my gun because I always privileged my studies. I return the 4th and I’ll do my Erasmus in Strasbourg. Afterwards there will be plenty of time to prepare for the Tokyo Olympics which are my next goal, as I missed the quota for Rio by two miserable points.” As for the men’s team trap event, it was won by Italy, confirming once again the tradition, with Cyprus and India ending second and third respectively.

It was also the day of Tomasz Bartnik, who won the first gold medal for Poland in the men’s 50 m rifle 3 positions: “It’s definitely my best victory,” said the 26 year-old student at the Military University of Technology of Warsaw, “and my best sporting result. Yes, I was world champion team in Munich in 2010, but an individual title is incomparable. I missed the Olympics in Rio by a hair and this victory is really the result that I needed to push myself to prepare for Tokyo 2020.” The Czech Petr Nymbursky and Thai Napis Tortungpanich of the Institute of Physical Education Suphanbuai completed the podium while Tomasz Bartnik pocketed a second gold with his Polish teammates in the team event ahead of Switzerland and Slovakia. This is truly a day he will remember!

And we conclude this overview with the raid carried out by the Chinese team in the women’s 50 m rifle 3 positions competition with gold for Chen Dongqi, bronze for Fang Chen and obviously the team title as well. Anjum Mudgil (IND) squeezed herself in between the two Chinese shooters on the individual podium. The Czechs and the Koreans got silver and bronze in the team event.