Polish Shooters Shine on Day One of World Cup

Poland won a gold, two silver and two bronze medals on the first day of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Shooting World Cup in Szczecin, Poland on Thursday (12 April).

In the R3 mixed 10m Air Rifle prone SH1, Waldemar Andruszkiewicz won gold with 704.1 points. Just 0.5 points behind him was Great Britain’s Matt Skelhon, who took silver with 703.6 points.

Slovakia’s Radoslav Malenovsky was just 0.1 points behind to take bronze in the individual event, but his team, consisting of Jozef Siroky and Veronika Vadovicova shot 1,793 points to take gold in the R3 mixed 10m Air Rifle prone SH1 team event.

Silver in the team event went to Poland (Andruszkiewicz, Tadeusz Burski, Jolanta Szulc) with 1,792 points, and Great Britain’s team consisting of Skelhon, Nathan Milgate and Deanna Coates took bronze with 1,790 points.

Poland also took bronze in the P5 mixed Air Pistol Standard SH1, when Slawomir Okoniewski scored 302 points. He was beaten by Germany’s Frank Heitmeyer (357 points), who took gold, and Austria’s Hubert Aufscnaiter (327 points) who won silver.

In the Falling Target Pistol, in which athletes have two rounds of five shots, Poland medalled twice, but the top-spot went to Turkey’s Yamac Korhan with 6 points in the final. Poland’s Slawomir Okoniewski scored 5 points to take silver and his teammate Wojciech Kosowski took bronze with 4 points.

Friday’s competition continued with the P2 women's 10m Air Pistol SH1. Turkey’s Aysel Ozgan won gold with 469.1 points. Russia’s Marina Klimenchenko came second with 467.5 points and Hungary’s Krisztina David was third with 464.2 points.

In the Falling Target Rifle SH1, Ukraine’s Iurii Stoiev won gold with 6 points in the final. Slovakia’s Veronika Vadovicova came second with 5 points, followed by Great Britain’s Lorraine Lambert with 3 points. Lambert’s teammates Skelhon and Millgate were knocked out during the second round.

Nearly 140 shooters are taking part in 10 events until Sunday 15 April.