Shooting: Schmirl World Champion in the KK sport rifle three-position fight

2023-08-20 13:56:49

The 33-year-old from Lower Austria prevailed in the final of the small caliber rifle three-position fight involving eight athletes, ahead of the Czech Petr Nymbursky and the Indian Akhil Sheoran. In addition, together with Andreas Thum and Patrick Diem, there was silver in the team competition in this discipline.

“It’s just overwhelming, a crazy moment. I’ve worked my whole life towards this moment,” said Schmirl. He qualified fourth in the basic round for the final. There it was clear to him from the beginning that it would be a close race in a duel with the best athletes in the world. “Since I’ve already shot very good finals this season, I was sure that I would get relatively far,” said the ÖSB athlete. That was the case.

After the first five-shot kneeling series, Schmirl was still 1.4 rings behind the Swiss Christoph Dürr, who was still the leader. He closed the gap to 0.7 after the second and passed him with a strong third and was 2.0 points ahead. Schmirl took the momentum into the three prone series (52.4, 52.5, 52.3) and now extended his lead over Sheoran to 4.4 points. Standing, he would not let this cushion be taken away from him. In the final count, the army squad athlete and fourth in the world rankings remained a remarkable 3.4 points ahead of second-placed Nymbursky with his final result of 462.6 points.

As one of two finalists, he had already secured a quota place, and four more tickets were up for grabs. The Tyrolean Thum missed the finals just like the Vorarlberger Diem, for them there were places 20 and 38. Due to the success in the team there was still plenty of reason to celebrate. On Monday, the women’s KK three-position match and the first round of the men’s 25-meter rapid-fire pistol event are on the agenda.