Shooting at the 1988 Summer Olympics – Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol

The men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol was one of the thirteen shooting events at the 1988 Summer Olympics. The last Olympic competition on the non-circular target, and the first to feature final shooting, it was won by Latvian Afanasijs Kuzmins after a perfect 300 in the first stage, 298 in the second, and two perfect 50 series in the final, thus not allowing Ralf Schumann and John McNally to eliminate his one-point pre-final lead. It was the first gold medal for the Soviet Union in the event. Schumann comfortably won the silver while McNally fell back during the final with a 47 and a 46, finishing seventh and giving way to a third-place tie between Zoltán Kovács and Alberto Sevieri, resolved in Kovács's favour on grounds of higher final score.[1] The bronze was Hungary's first rapid fire pistol since 1952. There were 32 competitors from 23 nations.[2] Each nation had been limited to two shooters since the 1952 Games.

Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol
at the Games of the XXIV Olympiad
Shooting pictogram
VenueTaereung International Shooting Range
Date23 September 1988
Competitors32 from 23 nations
Winning score698 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Afanasijs Kuzmins
 Soviet Union
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Ralf Schumann
 East Germany
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Zoltán Kovács
 Hungary
← 1984
1992 →

Background

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This was the 18th 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 was more similar to the non-Olympic men's ISSF 25 meter center-fire pistol than the rapid fire pistol).

Five of the top 10 shooters from 1984 returned: silver medalist (and 1980 gold medalist) Corneliu Ion of Romania, fourth-place finisher Delival Nobre of Brazil, fifth-place finisher Yang Chung-yeol of South Korea, eighth-place finisher Bernardo Tovar of Colombia, and tenth-place finisher Juan Seguí of Spain. Afanasijs Kuzmins of the Soviet Union, who had placed 6th in 1980 and not competed in 1984 due to the Soviet-led boycott, also returned. Poland had taken the top two spots at the 1986 world championships; winner Adam Kaczmarek competed in Seoul but runner-up Andrzej Macur did not. The third-place finisher at the world championships, Ralf Schumann of East Germany, was also the world record holder.

For the first time, no nations made their debut in the event. The United States made its 15th appearance, most of any nation.

Competition format

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The competition format introduced a two-round tournament for the first time, using a qualifying round and a final.

The qualifying round 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 new final consisted of two series of 5 shots each, scored normally. The top eight shooters advanced to the final. Ties to get into the final were broken first by the total of the two 4-second series in the second course, then the two 6-second series in the second course, then the two 8-second series in the second course, then the 4-, 6-, and 8-second series in order in the first course. Ties in the final were broken first by the total of the two series in the final.

A holdover from the previous Games was that silhouettes, rather than round targets, continued to be used; however, scoring rings had been added so that now each shot was scored up to 10 rather than being strictly hit or miss.

One change from 1948–1956 was that hits were no longer the primary measurement of success. As in 1960–1984, ranking was done by score, regardless of hits.[2][6]

Records

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

Qualifying (60 shots)
World record   Ralf Schumann (GDR)
Olympic record   Norbert Klaar (GDR) 597 Montreal, Canada 22–23 July 1976
Qualifying plus final (70 shots)
World record New format n/a n/a n/a
Olympic record New format n/a n/a n/a

Afanasijs Kuzmins set a new Olympic record for the 60-shot qualifying round at 598; Ralf Schumann and John McNally were 1 point behind him in tying the old record at 597.

Kuzmins also set the initial record for the new 70-shot total qualifying plus final at 698.[6]

Schedule

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All times are Korea Standard Time adjusted for daylight savings (UTC+10)

Date Time Round
Friday, 23 September 1988 13:30 Qualifying
Final

Results

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Qualifying

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Rank Shooter Nation Course 1 Course 2 Total Notes
1 Afanasijs Kuzmins   Soviet Union 300 298 598 Q, OR
2 John McNally   United States 298 299 597 Q
3 Ralf Schumann   East Germany 298 299 597 Q
4 Alberto Sevieri   Italy 296 300 596 Q
5 Adam Kaczmarek   Poland 297 298 595 Q
6 Zoltán Kovács   Hungary 296 298 594 Q
7 Bernardo Tovar   Colombia 296 297 593 Q
8 Dirk Köhler   West Germany 294 297 591 Q
4-second series, course 2: 98
6-second series, course 2: 100)
9 László Balogh   Hungary 295 296 591 Q
4-second series, course 2: 98
6-second series, course 2: 98)
Yang Chung-yul   South Korea 295 296 591 Q
4-second series, course 2: 98
6-second series, course 2: 98
11 Krzysztof Kucharczyk   Poland 296 295 591 Q
4-second series, course 2: 95
Meng Gang   China 297 294 591 Q
4-second series, course 2: 95
13 Rojelio Arredondo   United States 296 294 590
Nguyễn Quốc Cường   Vietnam 297 293 590
Hans-Rudolf Schneider   Switzerland 297 293 590
16 Toni Küchler   Switzerland 294 294 589
Li Zhongqi   China 295 294 589
18 Corneliu Ion   Romania 294 294 588
Roland Müller   East Germany 294 294 588
Juan Segui   Spain 294 294 588
21 Hideo Nonaka   Japan 291 296 587
Lkhagvaagiin Undralbat   Mongolia 296 291 587
Vladimir Vokhmianin   Soviet Union 293 294 587
24 Adrian Breton   Great Britain 292 294 586
Delival Nobre   Brazil 295 291 586
26 Alfredo Gonzalez   Colombia 289 296 585
Christian Kezel   France 289 296 585
Břetislav Putna   Czechoslovakia 291 294 585
29 Mark Howkins   Canada 293 291 584
Hermann Sailer   Austria 292 292 584
31 Jouni Vainio   Finland 280 298 578
32 Lim Jang-soo   South Korea 288 287 575

Final

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Kovács' final score of 99 broke the tie for bronze medal in his favor over Sevieri's 97.

Rank Shooter Nation Qualifying Final Total Notes
Series 1 Series 2 Total
  Afanasijs Kuzmins   Soviet Union 598 50 50 100 698 OR
  Ralf Schumann   East Germany 597 49 50 99 696
  Zoltán Kovács   Hungary 594 50 49 99 693
4 Alberto Sevieri   Italy 596 49 48 97 693
5 Adam Kaczmarek   Poland 595 48 48 96 691
6 Bernardo Tobar   Colombia 593 49 48 97 690
7 John McNally   United States 597 47 46 93 690
8 Dirk Köhler   West Germany 591 49 49 98 689

References

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  1. ^ "Shooting at the 1988 Seoul Summer Games: Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 20 February 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men's". Olympedia. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1896)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  4. ^ "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1936)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1948)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  6. ^ a b Official Report, vol. 2, p. 541.

Sources

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