The Italian, who was world champion in 2010 and was selected as “shooter of the year” by the worldwide ISSF shooting federation in 2012, beat out Ukraine’s Serhiy Kulish, who garnered 204.4 points and took the silver.
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Vladimir Maslennikov of Russian Federation celebrates with his bronze medal during the award ceremony for men’s 10 meter air rifle at Olympic Shooting Center at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, Aug. 8, 2016. “I am overjoyed at this medal. sometimes I have hated this sport”, Campriani said.
Campriani, a 28-year-old, three-time Olympian and 2012 silver medalist, established an Olympic record of 630.2 in the qualifying round and his competition score also now qualifies as an Olympic record.
“Today, I was trying to keep as many happy thoughts as possible”.
The shaven-headed Campriani’s luck was finally in at the third attempt in the Olympic 10m air rifle after his second in London and 12th in Beijing. He took the lead late in the elimination rounds and led Kulish by 0.4 points heading into the final two shots.
Rossella Fiamingo took silver in the women’s epee – Italy’s first medal of the Rio Olympics.
He nailed the title by 1.5 points with a 10.7 score, only a pencil dot off a flawless hit.
Russia’s Vladimir Maslennikov, a 21-year-old Olympic rookie, took the bronze with a score of 184.2.
Campriani and the field took advantage after two of the world’s top shooters failed to make it out of qualifying. Moldoveanu was almost three points behind the lowest qualifying score and finished 19th.
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And China’s Cao, the world champion, had his hopes dashed with a wayward final shot which left him slipping out of the short list to ninth.
