Kovalchuk edges to gold in thrilling conclusion to World Cup
21.04.2015
A three-way battle between Denmark’s Johnny Andersen, Great Britain’s Tim Jeffrey and Ukraine’s Vasyl Kovalchuk concluded the 2015 IPC Shooting World Cup in Szczecin, Poland.
Ukrainian Vasyl Kovalchuk won R5 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH2) gold on Tuesday (21 April) after an exhilarating conclusion to the 2015 IPC Shooting World Cup in Szczecin, Poland, involving a three-way battle.
Kovalchuk, who holds the European title in R4 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH2), was chased all the way to victory by Denmark’s Johnny Andersen and Great Britain’s Tim Jeffrey, only winning by 0.1 points.
Initially, the Ukrainian emerged from the first competition stages tied with Jeffrey.
Then, despite managing to put some clear air in between himself and the Brit in the first two rounds of elimination, Kovalchuk and Jeffrey re-entered deadlock in the third.
The saga continued in the next round, with Jeffrey then grabbing a slight 0.5 point edge as Andersen levelled the score between himself and Kovalchuk with a 10.8 and 10.9.
It was then Andersen and Jeffrey who locked horns in the fifth round, both finishing with 169.8 points and Kovalchuk trailing by just 0.2.
But it was Jeffrey (169.8) who lost his nerve in the penultimate round, dropping to a 9.9 to remove himself from gold medal contention to take bronze.
Kovalchuk’s attempts left him just 0.3 points ahead of Andersen, which was enough for him to seal victory in the final round with 211.7 over the Dane’s 211.6.
Jeffrey’s efforts secured his team the gold medal with 1898.8, followed by Germany (1890.3) and Denmark (1883.0).
Full results are available at IPC Shooting's website.
The next IPC Shooting World Cup takes place in Antalya, Turkey, between 12-15 May, before the first Rio 2016 qualification opportunity for shooters at the World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, from 10-14 July.