Denysiuk: My best and worst moments

The Ukrainian shooter hopes to medal at his first Paralympic Games in September, without his trousers falling down. 07 Apr 2016
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Oleksii Denysiuk

Oleksii Denysiuk is targeting medal success at his first World Championships

ⒸIPC
By Jake Smith | For the IPC

Ukraine’s Oleksii Denysiuk burst onto the scene in 2015 by winning multiple IPC shooting World Cup medals and setting a new world record.

That meant he wound up inside the world top three for P1 (men’s 10m air pistol SH1), P3 (mixed 25m pistol SH1) and P4 (mixed 50m pistol SH1) in his debut season.

His successful form has continued this year with a golden hat-trick performance at the World Cup in Bangkok, Thailand, in March, where he collected three wins from three events.

The Ukrainian is a hot favourite to storm the podium at the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games in September and is certainly a future star of the sport.

Here he gives us the best, worst and just plain funny moments of his career so far.

My best moment

“I hope that my most memorable and important moments are ahead, so it is really difficult to mention any top moment.

“During the 2015 IPC Shooting World Cup in Osijek, Croatia, I set a new finals world record in P1 (men’s 10m air pistol). At this event I also won a qualification slot for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, for the Ukrainian team.

As to my shooting results, during 2016 IPC Shooting World Cup in Bangkok I won three gold medals in P1 (men’s 10m air pistol), P3 (mixed 25m air pistol) and P4 (mixed 50m pistol events.”

My worst moment

“Once I took part in a Ukrainian competition and participated in a rapid fire pistol event. During this event there was a shoot-off and after the first shot my foresight was broken (it just fell down on the floor), and even after that I continued my shooting and made four more shots.

“I had no choice because time was counted. I made four more shots without foresight and they were all successful. I lost just two points to the second place. This case was positive for my further career, it was a good lesson for me.

Just funny

“I can also indicate few curious and funny moments in my career, so I cannot count them as best or worst moments.

“Once at the Ukrainian Championships, during sighting shots of the event, I felt the belt of my trousers break. For the next hour of shooting I needed to shoot with one hand, and hold my trousers with the other hand.

“Also, during the qualification phase of a P1 event I loaded two pellets - one after another for one shot. It happened due to the reason that I loaded one pellet, aimed it to the target but did not make a shot - I decided to rest a little bit, laid my pistol down and loaded one more pellet. Therefore, I made one shot with two pellets.

“It only happened once in my career.”

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Sport fans from around the world can now buy their Paralympic tickets for Rio 2016 from authorised ticket resellers (ATRs).

The IPC’s Global ATR is Jet Set Sports, and Rio 2016 tickets and packages can be purchased on the CoSport website.

Residents of Brazil can buy 2016 Paralympics tickets directly from the Rio 2016 website.