Shooting at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol explained

Event:	Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol
Games:	2016 Summer
Venue:	National Shooting Center
Dates:	12–13 August 2016
Competitors:	26
Nations:	20
Win Label:	Winning score
Win Value:	34
Longnames:	yes
Gold:	Christian Reitz
Goldnoc:	GER
Silver:	Jean Quiquampoix
Silvernoc:	FRA
Bronze:	Li Yuehong
Bronzenoc:	CHN
Prev:	2012
Next:	2020

The men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol event at the 2016 Olympic Games took place on 12 and 13 August 2016 at the National Shooting Center.^[1] There were 26 competitors from 20 nations. The event was won by Christian Reitz of Germany, the nation's first victory in the event and fifth overall (most of any nation). Reitz, the bronze medalist in 2008, was the 12th man to win multiple medals in the rapid fire pistol. Jean Quiquampoix of France took silver, the nation's first medal in the event since 1900. China took bronze, just as in 2012, this time by Li Yuehong.

The medals were presented by Austin Sealy, IOC member, Barbados and Franz Schreiber, Secretary General of the International Shooting Sport Federation.

Background

This was the 25th appearance of what had been standardised in 1948 as the men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol event, the only event on the 2020 programme that traces back to 1896.^[2] The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1928 (when no shooting events were held) and 1908; it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years.^[3] The first five events were quite different, with some level of consistency finally beginning with the 1932 event—which, though it had differences from the 1924 competition, was roughly similar. The 1936 competition followed the 1932 one quite closely.^[4] The post-World War II event substantially altered the competition once again.^[5] The 1984 Games introduced women's-only shooting events, including the ISSF 25 meter pistol (though this is more similar to the non-Olympic men's ISSF 25 meter center-fire pistol than the rapid fire pistol).

Three of the six finalists from 2012 returned: gold medalist Leuris Pupo of Cuba, fourth-place finisher Alexei Klimov of Russia, and sixth place finisher (and 2008 bronze medalist) Christian Reitz of Germany. For the first time since 1984, Ralf Schumann was not competing. The 2014 world championship podium had been Korean shooter Kim Jun-hong, German shooter Oliver Geis, and Chinese shooter Li Yuehong. Kim and Reitz shared the world record for the qualifying round.^[2]

Azerbaijan and Estonia each made their debut in the event. The United States made its 21st appearance, most of any nation.

Qualification

See main article: Shooting at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Qualification.

Each National Olympic Committee (NOC) could enter up to two shooters if the NOC earned enough quota sports or had enough crossover-qualified shooters. To compete, a shooter needed a quota spot and to achieve a Minimum Qualification Score (MQS). Once a shooter was using a quota spot in any shooting event, they could enter any other shooting event for which they had achieved the MQS as well (a crossover qualification). There were 18 quota spots available for the rapid fire pistol: 1 for the host nation (Brazil), 2 at the 2014 World Championship, 8 at the 2015 World Cup events (2 spots at each of 4 events), and 7 for continental events (2 each for Europe and Asia, 1 each for Americas, Africa, and Oceania). Four additional quota places were added through exchange from other events, a Tripartite Commission invitation, and re-allocation of unused quota. In 2016, four crossover qualifications (sharply increased from the one per year the last few Games) were used in the rapid fire pistol, 3 from the 10 metre air pistol and 1 from the 50 metre pistol.

Competition format

The competition format continued to use the two-round (qualifying round and final) format, as in 1988 and since 1996, with the final format introduced in 2012. The 2005 rules changes required the pistols used to be sport pistols, banning .22 Short cartridges.

The qualifying round from 1988 onward was essentially the same as the full competition format from 1948–1984. Each shooter fired 60 shots. These were done in two courses of 30; each course consisted of two stages of 15; each stage consisted of three series of 5. In each stage, the time limit for each series was 8 seconds for the first, 6 seconds for the second, and 4 seconds for the third.

The 1988 tournament had added a two-series final for the top eight shooters; the 1992 competition broke that down to a four-series semifinal for the top eight and two-series final for the top four. In 1996 and 2000, the top eight once again advanced to the final. The 2004 version had reduced the number of finalists to six, where it stayed in 2008 and 2012.

Prior to 2008, the final involved two series of 5 shots at 4 seconds. In 2008, that was expanded to four series. The 2012 competition used an entirely different format, however, which remained in effect in 2016. The competition switched to a "hit-or-miss" system, where a 9.7 or better scores as a "hit" for 1 point and anything lower scores as a "miss" for 0 points. The final featured 8 series of 5 shots each (5 points maximum per series, 40 points maximum total). However, starting with the fourth series, the remaining shooter with the lowest total was eliminated after each series (5 shooters remaining in the fifth series, 4 in the sixth, 3 in the seventh, and only 2 in the eighth and final series).

The 1992 competition had introduced round targets rather than the silhouettes used from 1948 to 1988 as well as many pre-World War II versions of the event. Score, rather than hits, had been used as the primary ranking method since 1960.^{[2] [6]}

Records

Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

Christian Reitz matched the Olympic records in both the qualifying and final rounds.

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
Friday, 12 August 2016		Qualifying: Course 1
Saturday, 13 August 2016	12:30	Qualifying: Course 2 Final

Results

Qualifying

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Course 1				Course 2				Total	Xs	Notes
			8 seconds	6 seconds	4 seconds	Total	8 seconds	6 seconds	4 seconds	Total
1	Christian Reitz		100	99	97	296	100	100	96	296	592	27	,
2	Zhang Fusheng		99	99	94	292	100	99	99	298	590	27
3	Jean Quiquampoix		99	98	96	293	99	99	95	293	586	19
4	Riccardo Mazzetti		98	98	96	292	97	99	98	294	586	18
5	Li Yuehong		97	97	96	290	97	99	98	294	584	23
6	Leuris Pupo		95	100	95	290	100	98	95	293	583	19
7	Gurpreet Singh		100	99	90	289	97	98	97	292	581	24
8	Kim Jun-hong		98	97	92	287	99	98	97	294	581	19
9	Alexei Klimov		98	97	94	289	98	96	98	292	581	16
10	Keith Sanderson		99	94	97	290	98	99	93	290	580	19
11	Roman Bondaruk		97	96	93	286	100	98	95	293	579	18
12	Emil Milev		96	97	91	284	100	98	96	294	578	19
13	Emerson Duarte		98	97	90	285	99	100	94	293	578	19
14	Jorge Llames		97	99	92	288	98	96	95	289	577	14
15	Ruslan Lunev		94	97	97	288	97	96	94	287	575	17
16	Pavlo Korostylov		96	99	98	293	99	96	86	281	574	18
17	Oliver Geis		97	99	95	291	94	96	91	281	572	22
18	Ghulam Mustafa Bashir		97	94	96	287	98	94	92	284	571	12
19	Eita Mori		97	96	91	284	95	97	94	286	570	13
20	Piotr Daniluk		97	97	94	288	97	95	87	279	567	12
21	Kang Min-su		97	94	85	276	98	95	95	288	564	19
22	Teruyoshi Akiyama		98	96	94	288	95	93	88	276	564	18
23	Ahmed Shaban		96	92	90	278	96	95	93	284	562	6
24	Marko Carrillo		94	95	83	272	96	97	92	285	557	14
25	Peeter Olesk		92	92	86	270	95	95	93	283	553	8
26	David Chapman		98	95	76	269	95	96	91	282	551	18

Final

Rank	Athlete	Nation	1	2	3	4	Int	5	Int	6	Int	7	Int	8	Total	Notes
			5	4	4	4	17	4	21	4	25	4	29	5	34
			2	4	5	3	14	5	19	5	24	3	27	3	30
			3	5	4	4	16	4	20	2	22	5	27
4			5	4	5	4	18	2	20	1	21
5			5	3	3	4	15	3	18
6			2	2	4	2	10

Notes and References

1. Web site: Shooting at the 2016 Summer Olympics – Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol . 13 August 2016 . Rio 2016 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20160806080319/https://www.rio2016.com/en/shooting-standings-sh-25m-rapid-fire-pistol-men . 6 August 2016 .
2. Web site: Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men's . Olympedia . 14 December 2020.
3. Web site: Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1896) . Olympedia . 11 December 2020.
4. Web site: Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1936) . Olympedia . 11 December 2020.
5. Web site: Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1948) . Olympedia . 11 December 2020.
6. News: Pistol . The Washington Post . 14 December 2020.