Taiwan celebrates first medal, Germany fails to win a medal

After yesterday's medal celebrations for Germany, the tension continued today in the men's 25-meter pistol and women's 50-meter rifle competitions.

In the morning, the best 12 shooters competed in the 25-meter pistol competition to secure their place in the final. The Ukrainian Oleksandr Kolodii caused a sensation: with 575 rings, he set a new world record. But the competition was not without controversy. His compatriot Oleksii Lazebnyk also initially qualified for the final, but a protest from the Croatian team brought about a change. After a thorough examination, the jury disqualified Lazebnyk due to non-compliant equipment - a dramatic moment that allowed Boris Gramnjak from Croatia to make it to the final. However, it was a bitter day for the German participants Martin Böhlke and Bodo Funcke: They missed out on a place in the final and had to bury their hopes of another medal. Germany has so far only won a bronze medal in the team competition.

The women's 50-meter rifle competition offered gripping moments and high tension. In optimal weather conditions, eleven shooters fought for a place in the final. The German Miriam Kraska made it particularly exciting when she fired her shots literally at the last second. In the end, both Kraska and her compatriot Sabrina Eckert were able to qualify for the final. Here, the Indian Mahit Sandhu made another exclamation mark: After her victory in the qualifying round, she not only won the gold medal in the final, but also set another world record. Her impressive consistency - 22 of 24 shots over 10 rings - secured her a brilliant victory.
Miriam Kraska also had exciting moments in the final: she won two nerve-wracking shoot-offs, but ultimately had to settle for 5th place. Sabrina Eckert took 8th place. Second place went to Hungarian Mira Zsuzsanna Biatovszki, who defeated Ukrainian Yuliia Yevtushenko in the shoot-off, who had to settle for bronze.

In the 25-meter pistol final, Oleksandr Kolodii once again prevailed and crowned his day with 42 rings and another world record. Silver went to Abhinav Deshwal from India, while Ming-Jui Hsu from Taiwan won the bronze medal - the first medal for Taiwan at a shooting world championship.