Germany win third shooting gold in Rio

Christian Reitz has claimed the Olympic title of the men's 25m rapid fire pistol, the third gold in shooting for Germany at the Rio Games.

Reitz made 34 hits in the final on Saturday, beating Frenchman Jean Quiquampoix to second who scored 30 hits. Li Yuehong from China took the bronze with 27 hits, reports Xinhua.

Germany who also won the men's 25m rapid fire pistol in 1936, 1992, 1996 and 2004 Olympic Games, becomes the only team with five gold medals in this event in the Olympic history.

"No, easy it's not," sad Reitz about the competition, "It's hard competition on my own. Some series are not so good, but at the end, it's all fine."

Reitz became the third Olympic champion from Germany in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol after Cornelius Van Oyen in 1936 and Ralf Shumann in 1992, 1996 and 2004.

The 21-year-old Italian talent Gabriele Rossetti won the men's skeet on Saturday by edging Marcus Svensson from Sweden in the shoot-off.

Rossetti scored 121 out of 125 targets at the qualification, and managed to hit all the targets in the semi-final, final and shoot-off.

"I was confident I could make it," Rossetti said.

"We are a strong team, Italy won three out of the six skeet medals up for grabs here in Rio, so I feel part of a great family."

Independent Olympic Athlete Abdullah Alrashidi took the bronze medal by beating the 2000 Olympic champion and Ukrainian flag-bearer Mikola Milchev 16-14.

"I think I am so happy because now I have all the medals, World Championships, World Cup, Asian Games and Asian Championships, I had them all," said Alrashidi, "Now I have an Olympic medal."

--IANS

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