Germany shows nerves: First gold and silver after a long wait at the World Championships

On the fourth day of the World Championships in Hanover, all eyes were on the women's competition in the 25-meter pistol discipline. Ten top athletes competed in the qualification to secure one of the coveted places in the final. In recent days, the shooters from Ukraine and India had dominated the pistol competitions - a dominance that was to be confirmed today.

Pranjali Prashant Dhumal from India sent a clear message by setting a new qualification world record with 571 rings and confidently taking first place. A strong Ukrainian followed directly behind. The final places were taken by shooters from Ukraine, India and Croatia, while German hope Silke Fischer unfortunately dropped out. This means that Germany must continue to wait for a medal in the pistol competition.

Afterwards, the men took the stage in the 50-meter rifle shooting. Fifteen shooters fought for a place in the final, with the top eight advancing. The German shooters Sebastian Herrmany, Erik Hess and Colin Daniel Müller showed an impressive performance and qualified for the final - a strong signal for the host country.

Sebastian Herrmany set a special highlight by breaking both the qualification world record and the world championship record. With 623.0 rings, he surpassed the previous record set by Colin Daniel Müller, which was set five years ago at the Deaflympics in Brazil with 617.4 rings.

The final round promised to be very exciting: three Germans, one Portuguese, two Ukrainians and two Czechs fought for the medals. After a short break, the qualified shooters started the race with great concentration.

After just the first 10 shots, Colin Daniel Müller took the lead with 124.8 rings, closely followed by Erik Hess and Sebastian Herrmany - all three from Germany. In the first shoot-off, the Ukrainian Dmytro Staroselets had to leave the field. The second shoot-off was a real thrill: the Portuguese shooter Nuno Fernando Reis Esteves was able to win narrowly and leave both Czechs behind to secure 5th place. In the last duel, Sebastian Herrmany showed nerves of steel and eliminated the Portuguese with a razor-thin lead of 0.1 rings.

The battle for the bronze medal between the Ukrainian Dmytro Petrenko and Sebastian Herrmany was hard-fought until the last shot. Although Herrmany was able to take the lead in the meantime, Petrenko proved his class and secured a place on the podium with 204.0 rings, while Herrmany was only narrowly eliminated with 203.9 rings.

The final for gold developed into a thrilling duel between Colin Daniel Müller and Erik Hess. Müller defended his lead with an outstanding performance, relegating Hess to second place by 0.7 points. Colin Daniel Müller is now the new world champion and crowned his performance by improving the world record in the final round to an impressive 247.9 points - an improvement on his own record from Brazil.

The golden day for Germany was then rounded off by the women's pistol final. Here, Ukrainian Sofiia Olenych dominated from the start and clearly secured the gold medal with a new world record of 40 points. Her compatriot Halyna Mosina took silver, while Pranjali Prashant Dhumal of India completed the podium with bronze.