Cuban pistol shooter Leuris Pupo, London 2012 Olympic champion and silver medalist in Tokyo 2020, will seek a medal this Friday in the Olympic Qualifying Rifle and Pistol Championship, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Pupo, who since 2022 guaranteed his ticket to the summer event in Paris, France, to be held from July 26 to August 11 this year, will be one of the six finalists in the 25-meter (m) rapid fire pistol.
Along with the Cuban, Matej Rampula and Martin Podhrasky, both from the Czech Republic, will try to reach the awards podium, as well as the French Clement Bessaguet, world champion, Jean Quiquampoix, Olympic champion, and the American Keith Sanderson.
On Thursday, in the second stage prior to the discussion of the medals, the Cuban laureate achieved a score of 291 (99, 98 and 94 units in the three series of shots), to finish with an accumulated 584 points, according to the official website of the competition.
Rampula (587) and Bessaguet (586) led the qualifying phase in a modality that had the participation of 45 gunmen.
The tournament, which will conclude today, will be attended by 466 athletes from 76 countries in search of the 16 quotas for the Olympic Games in Paris, in what will be the last chance for the exponents of this sport to reach the coveted place.
In Pupo’s case, he will try to repeat his outstanding performance in the XIV Americas Rifle and Pistol Championship, held in Buenos Aires, Argentina, last April 7, where he won the title with 30 points, demonstrating once again his excellent marksmanship at zero hour and great sportsmanship.
His teammate Jorge Félix Álvarez, winner of the Pan American Games in Lima 2019 and the Central Caribbean Games in San Salvador 2023, followed him on the podium with an accumulated 22 points and, in addition, won his ticket to the five rings in the French capital, the fourth for Cuban shooting.
