Victorian Michael Davis announced himself as a star of the future after a brilliant gold medal winning performance in the men’s 10m Air Rifle in the Adelaide Grand Prix held at the Wingfield Rifle Range today.
Davis, aged 19, upstaged Australian Tokyo Olympic Games team members Dane Sampson and Jack Rossiter to score his biggest victory in his career.
After qualifying in third place for the final with 626.6 points, Davis registered 249.5 points in the final to defeat Sampson (248.9 points) by 0.6 points with Rossiter (228.6 points) placed third.
Davis’ score was 0.2 higher than Alex Hoberg’s Adelaide Grand Prix event winning score on Saturday. Hoberg withdrew from the final today because of illness.
Davis’ final score today, like Hoberg’s total on Saturday and Sampson’s runner-up score today, was better than the 2018 ISSF World Championship winning score of 248.4 by Russia’ Sergey Kamenskiy.
Davis’ potential had been earmarked by the national selectors last month when he was named as a member of the National Performance Squad and he has his sights on a place in the Australian team to compete at the ISSF World Junior Championships scheduled to be held in Peru in September and October.
Today’s 10m Air Rifle final was also highlighted by Para Sport athlete, Glen McMurtrie, qualifying for the final where he was placed seventh.
McMurtrie is aiming to win selection in the Australian team for the Tokyo Paralympic Games to be held in August and September.
McMurtrie’s fellow Para Sports athlete, 2012 London Paralympic Games bronze medallist, Natalie Smith, narrowly missed the final after qualifying in ninth position.
At the BISC Pistol Cup 2 women’s 10m Air Pistol final held at the Brisbane International Shooting Centre today, Olympian Dina Aspandiyarova returned to the top of the medal dais.
Aspandiyarova was placed third in last month’s women’s 10m Air Pistol final but scored a commanding victory today when shooting 237.1 points to comfortably defeat Olympian Elena Galiabovitch (233.7 points) and Western Australia’s Siobhy Nicholls (212.2 points).
Aspandiyarova was the second highest qualifier for the final with 2018 Australian Youth Olympics representative, Olivia Erickson, shooting an impressive 564 to head the qualifying leaderboard.
Four-time Olympian, Dan Repacholi, registered his second successive victory of the season in the men’s 10m Air Pistol after winning the gold medal in last month’s final.
Repacholi (241.2 points) led the final after every stage to outpoint Western Australia’s Bailey Groves (239.9 points) and Tokyo Olympic Games team-member, Sergei Evglevski (217.1 points).
