ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup Final kicks-off in Munich. Zhang (CHN) and Mcphail (USA) claim the first two titles

The men's 50m Pistol and 50m Rifle Prone event opened the 2015 ISSF World Cup Final in Munich, Germany, where the best shooters of the world are competing from the 2nd through the 7th of September to secure this year's ISSF World Cup Titles.

The 2015 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup Final kicked-off in Munich, Germany. The best 85 rifle and pistol shooters of the world, selected throughout this year's four ISSF World Cup Stages in Changwon (KOR), Fort Benning (USA), Munich (GER) and Gabala (AZE), arrived here to challenge the title defenders and the 2014 World Champions, aiming at the 2015 World Cup title.

The event takes place at the 1972 Olympic shooting range of Munich from the 2nd through the 7th of September, in combination with the German Shooting Championship, one of the largest shooting competitions of the world which sees over 8 thousands athletes from all over the country competing in Olympic and non Olympic shooting events in ten days.

Zhang Bowen of the People's Republic of China (19) won the first Gold medal of the Final, finishing atop of the men's 50m Pistol event, today. Zhang, the youngest finalist, shot a consistent match, leaving behind him Olympic and world champions, to win his first world cup final in career.

With 192.6 points, the Chinese athlete beat Vietnam's Xuan Vinh Hoang (40), who finished in second place with 189.3 points after closing his match with three frustrating shots in the seventh ring (7.8, 7.5, 7.9). Nevertheless, Hoang won the applauses of the spectators. Travelling from Vietnam to Germany, his baggage was delayed and the Vietnamese shooter did not receive his pistol in time for the competition. As extrema ratio solution, the 40-year old athlete shot the match with a new, out-of-the-box pistol, without custom grip and adjustments. A remarkable achievement in today's shooting sport world, where every single piece of equipment is usually fine-tuned and customized to the last screw.

Hoang also managed to keep behind himself the title defender, the winner of the 2014 ISSF World Cup Final Wang Zhiwei (27) of the People's Republic of China, who placed in third with 173.6 points after a close duel against his teammate Mai Jiajie (28).

World's #1 Michael Mcphail of USA (33) claimed Gold at the following 50m Rifle Prone Men final, securing the world cup title with 208.5 points and 1 point of advantage on Russia's Kirill Grigoryan (23), second with 207.5 points.

The US athlete closed the ISSF season in the best possible way after winning two world cup stages in Munich and Fort Benning, and collected his very first world cup title sealing his leadership atop of the world ranking.

"I am very happy with how the season turned out," Mcphail said. "In the past years I have shot both the 50m Rifle 3 Positions and the 50m Prone Men events, and it takes so much time to train in a proper way. This season I just shot Prone, and it's much easier."

"I am going to take a month off now. We have a son who's due in the end of October, my second one, I am very excited!" Mcphail added, speaking after the award ceremony.

Following Mcphail and Grigoryan, Croatia's Bojan Durkovic (25) pocketed today's Bronze medal with 186.5 points, leaving Australia's 2008 Olympic bronze medallist Warren Potent (53) in fourth place with 165.7 points.

The 2015 ISSF Rifle and Pistol World Cup Final in Munich will continue tomorrow with the women's 25m Pistol and the men's 25m Rapid Fire Pistol finals, due at 16.45 and 18.00 (GMT+2).

For more information, contact:

Marco DALLA DEA

ISSF Communication Manager

marco@issf-sports.org

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