The Lower Austrian Alexander Schmirl won the silver medal with the large-caliber sports rifle over 300 m at the start of the European Shooting Championships in Osijek on Wednesday. With 596.0 rings, the 34-year-old had to admit defeat to the Slovenian Rajmond Debevec by 2.0 rings in the decision. The Hungarian Peter Sidi tied for bronze with Schmirl. With Bernhard Pickl in seventh place (594.0), another Austrian ended up in the top field.
In addition to this and other non-Olympic classes, these small-caliber and large-caliber title fights in Croatia from Tuesday to Thursday next week will also see decisions in Olympic classes in which quota places for Paris are still at stake. Two Olympic tickets will be awarded in each of the individual disciplines: 25 m pistol for women, rapid fire pistol for men and in the small caliber three-position match for women and men.
Schmirl clinched a quota place in the small-caliber three-position match in Baku last August by winning the world title. Before that, in June at the European Games in Wroclaw, Martin Strempfl had secured a red-white-red quota place for the summer games in France’s capital with his air rifle. For nine months now, the Austrian shooters have been hoping and waiting for further growth for this year’s major summer event.
