There were four medal events in the third day of competitions at the 2nd European Games in Minsk and each of them ended with a pleasant surprise
In 10m Air Rifle Men Sergey Richter from Israel won his first gold medal in the international competitions of such dimension in 10 years and the Quota Place to Tokyo-2020! He managed to leave on the second and third positions respectively the favorites – Sergey Kamenskiy from Russia and Filip Nepeijal from the Czech Republic.
Another Czech athlete Nikola Mazurova finished on the third place in 10m Air Rifle Women but was extremely happy because she won the Olympic quota! The new European Games Champion in this event Laura Coman from Rumania and the runner-up Nina Christen from Switzerland had obtained their Quota Places in the previous World Cups.
Another portion of surprised was waiting for the athletes and spectators at the 50m Pistol Mixed Team event – one of three Mixed Team events that are introduced in the program of the major international events for the first time. Artem Chernousov won his third gold medal of the Games! Together with his partner Margarita Lomova they ascended the upper step of the podium. On their right were silver medals holders Agate Rasmane and Lauris Strautmanis from Latvia. Great success for both young athletes. And on the left from the winners on the podium was the duo from Georgia. The bronze medals went to the great Olympian Nino Salukvadze and her son Tsone Machavariani!
Finally, Fatima Galvez and Antonio Bailon from Spain became the European Games winners in the Mixed Team Trap event. In the Gold Medal match they managed to be more precise than two legendary Italian shooters Jessica Rossi and Giovanni Pellielo. In the Bronze Medal match Daria Semianova and Alexei Alipov from Russian beat the second Italian duo composed by the winner of the Trap Women individual event Silvana Stanco and the silver medal holder in the Trap Men individual event Valerio Grazini!
More information and the results can be found on the website of the European Shooting Confederation (www.esc-shooting.org) and of the Organizing Committee of the 2nd European Games (www.minsk2019.by).