Shooting at the 1968 Summer Olympics – Mixed 25 metre rapid fire pistol

The mixed (or "open") ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1968 Summer Olympics programme. It was the 13th appearance of the event. The competition was held on 22 to 23 October 1968 at the Vicente Suárez Shooting Range in Mexico City. 56 shooters from 34 nations competed.[1] Nations had been limited to two shooters each since the 1952 Games. The event was won by Józef Zapędzki of Poland, the nation's first medal in the event and the first of two victories of Zapędzki (who would repeat in 1972). Marcel Roșca's silver put Romania on the rapid fire pistol podium for the fourth time in five Games. Renart Suleymanov of the Soviet Union took bronze.

Mixed 25 metre rapid fire pistol
at the Games of the XIX Olympiad
Józef Zapędzki
VenueVicente Suárez Shooting Range
Dates22–23 October
Competitors56 from 34 nations
Winning score593 OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Józef Zapędzki
 Poland
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Marcel Roșca
 Romania
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Renart Suleymanov
 Soviet Union
← 1964
(men's)
1972 →

Zapędzki received a replica of the Pyramid of the Sun for winning the event.[2]

Background

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This was the 13th appearance of what had been standardised in 1948 as the men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol event, the only event on the 2020 programme that traces back to 1896.[3] The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1928 (when no shooting events were held) and 1908; it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years. There is no women's equivalent on the Olympic programme, as of 2021.[4][5] The first five events were quite different, with some level of consistency finally beginning with the 1932 event—which, though it had differences from the 1924 competition, was roughly similar. The 1936 competition followed the 1932 one quite closely.[6] The post-World War II event substantially altered the competition once again.[7]

Six of the top 10 shooters from 1964 returned: gold medalist (and 1960 silver medalist and top-five finisher in 1952 and 1956) Pentti Linnosvuo of Finland, bronze medalist Lubomír Nácovský of Czechoslovakia, fifth-place finisher (and 1952 silver medalist) Szilárd Kun of Hungary, sixth-place finisher Marcel Roșca of Romania, ninth-place finisher Ladislav Falta of Czechoslovakia, and tenth-place finisher Tony Clark of Great Britain. The 1960 gold medalist, William McMillan of the United States, who had finished 12th in 1964, also returned. The 1966 world championship podium (champion Virgil Atanasiu of Romania, runner-up Józef Zapędzki of Poland, and third-place finisher Renart Suleymanov of the Soviet Union) were all competing in Mexico City.

El Salvador, Hong Kong, Mongolia, Singapore, and Vietnam each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed separately for the first time. The United States made its 11th appearance in the event, most of any nation.

Popular pistols were the Swiss Hammerli and the German Walther.[3]

Competition format

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The competition format followed the 1948 format, now very close to the modern rapid fire pistol competition after significant variation before World War II. Each shooter fired 60 shots. These were done in two courses of 30; each course consisted of two stages of 15; each stage consisted of three series of 5. In each stage, the time limit for each series was 8 seconds for the first, 6 seconds for the second, and 4 seconds for the third.

A holdover from the previous Games was that full-body silhouettes, rather than round targets, continued to be used; however, scoring rings had been added so that now each shot was scored up to 10 rather than being strictly hit or miss.

Ties for medals were broken with a shoot-off. The shoot-off was three series of 5 shots, each with a 4-second time limit.

One change from 1948 to 1956 was that hits were no longer the primary measurement of success. As in 1960–1964, ranking was done by score, regardless of hits.[3][8]

Records

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Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record
Olympic record   Pentti Linnosvuo (FIN) 592 Tokyo, Japan 19 October 1964

Józef Zapędzki beat the Olympic record with 593 points.

Schedule

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Date Time Round
Tuesday, 22 October 1968 8:30 Course 1
Wednesday, 23 October 1968 8:30 Course 2

Results

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Rank Shooter Nation Score Notes
  Józef Zapędzki   Poland 593 OR
  Marcel Roșca   Romania 591 First shoot-off: 147
  Renart Suleymanov   Soviet Union 591 First shoot-off: 146
Second shoot-off: 148
4 Christian Düring   East Germany 591 First shoot-off: 146
Second shoot-off: 146
5 Erich Masurat   West Germany 590
6 Gerhard Dommrich   East Germany 589
7 Lubomír Nácovský   Czechoslovakia 588
8 Giovanni Liverzani   Italy 588
9 Hans Standl   West Germany 587
10 Ladislav Falta   Czechoslovakia 587
11 Pentti Linnosvuo   Finland 587
12 Takeo Kamachi   Japan 586
13 Waldemar Califf   Sweden 586
14 Aladár Dobsa   Hungary 586
15 Immo Huhtinen   Finland 586
16 Wacław Hamerliński   Poland 585
17 Bill McMillan   United States 584
18 Ugo Amicosante   Italy 584
19 Alexander Taransky   Australia 583
20 Szilárd Kun   Hungary 583
21 Virgil Atanasiu   Romania 583
22 Alkiviadis Papageorgopoulos   Greece 582
23 Makoto Shiraishi   Japan 582
24 Tony Clark   Great Britain 581
25 Jim McNally   United States 580
26 Robert Hassell   Great Britain 580
27 Anatoly Onishchuk   Soviet Union 579
28 Dencho Denev   Bulgaria 579
29 Fernando Samoya   Guatemala 579
30 Hubert Garschall   Austria 579
31 Jaime González   Spain 579
32 Paterno Miranda   Philippines 578
33 Víctor Castellanos   Guatemala 578
34 Jules Sobrian   Canada 576
35 Leonard Bull   Kenya 576
36 Rangsit Yanothai   Thailand 576
37 Taweesak Kasiwat   Thailand 575
38 Oscar Cervo   Argentina 575
39 Stig Berntsson   Sweden 575
40 Kurt Klingler   Switzerland 575
41 Víctor Tantalean   Peru 572
42 Josef Ziltener   Switzerland 572
43 Rafael Carpio   Mexico 571
44 Nelson Torno   Argentina 571
45 José Álava   Spain 570
46 Loh Kok Heng   Singapore 566
47 Tüdeviin Myagmarjav   Mongolia 562
48 Enrique Torres   Mexico 561
49 Tomás Vilanova   El Salvador 561
50 Fernando Miranda   Puerto Rico 558
51 Keith Elder   Canada 554
52 Chou Yen-sheng   Taiwan 549
53 Vũ Văn Danh   Vietnam 548
54 Horacio Miranda   Philippines 541
55 Helio Castro   El Salvador 533
56 Young Kwok Wai   Hong Kong 517

References

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  1. ^ "Shooting at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Games: Mixed Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 8 June 2015.
  2. ^ Official Report, vol. 3, p. 431.
  3. ^ a b c "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Open". Olympedia. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  4. ^ "Shooting". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1896)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1936)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1948)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  8. ^ Official Report, vol. 3, p. 768.