Shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics – Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol

Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol at the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad
Venue	Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre
Date	August 21, 2004
Competitors	17 from 14 nations
Winning score	694.9
Medalists
Ralf Schumann   Germany   Sergei Polyakov   Russia   Sergei Alifirenko   Russia

Shooting at the 2004 Summer Olympics
Rifle
50 m rifle three positions		men		women
50 m rifle prone		men
10 m air rifle		men		women
Pistol
50 m pistol		men
25 m pistol				women
25 m rapid fire pistol		men
10 m air pistol		men		women
Shotgun
Trap		men		women
Double trap		men		women
Skeet		men		women
Running target
10 m running target		men

The 25 metre rapid fire pistol competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics was held on August 21 at the Markópoulo Olympic Shooting Centre near Athens, Greece. Germany's Ralf Schumann managed to get his third Olympic gold, becoming the first in the event's history to do so. Russia's Sergei Polyakov finished second, with his countryman, defending champion Sergei Alifirenko third. This was the last Olympic competition before the major rule changes that took place on January 1, 2005, and which lowered the results of the event.

Qualification round

In rapid fire pistol, the qualification round consists of two identical stages. In most major competitions, these are divided into one day each, but in Athens, both stages were fired on the same day; the first between 09:00 and 11:15 local time, and the second between 11:20 and 13:30.

Alifirenko, Polyakov and Schumann all reached 592 points, a much higher result level than in Sydney, but still far from Schumann's Olympic record from Atlanta, 596. For positions 7 and down, the qualification results decide the shooter's final ranking. For the six finalists, their positions decide the starting order in the final, and they bring their qualification results with them, to which the final results are then added.

Rank	Athlete	Country	8	6	4	ST1	8	6	4	ST2	Total	Notes
1	Sergei Alifirenko	Russia	98	99	97	294	100	99	99	298	592	Q
2	Sergei Polyakov	Russia	99	99	98	296	100	99	97	296	592	Q
3	Ralf Schumann	Germany	99	99	99	297	99	99	97	295	592	Q
4	Iulian Raicea	Romania	99	96	99	294	100	99	95	294	588	Q
5	Oleg Tkachyov	Ukraine	99	99	99	297	99	99	92	290	587	Q
6	Chen Yongqiang	China	100	95	94	289	100	100	97	297	586	Q
7	Zhang Penghui	China	98	97	96	291	96	100	98	294	585
8	Leuris Pupo	Cuba	98	98	93	289	100	98	98	296	585
9	Emil Milev	Bulgaria	96	98	94	288	100	98	96	294	582
10	Marco Spangenberg	Germany	99	98	95	292	97	99	93	289	581
11	Kang Hyung-chul	South Korea	96	98	93	287	98	99	96	293	580
12	Niki Marty	Switzerland	98	97	94	289	98	99	91	288	577
12	Lajos Palinkas	Hungary	100	96	91	287	96	98	96	290	577
14	Afanasijs Kuzmins	Latvia	94	90	98	282	100	96	96	292	574
15	Shuji Tazawa	Japan	95	96	96	287	99	93	94	286	573
16	Kim Hyon-ung	North Korea	97	97	88	282	98	98	94	290	572
17	Bruce Quick	Australia	97	97	89	283	98	99	91	288	571

Q Qualified for final – ST1 Stage 1 – ST2 Stage 2

Final

From 1993 until 2004, the rapid fire pistol final consisted of two four-second series. The Athens final began at 14:30 local time. Schumann, a reputed master of finals, produced the best final shooting for the day and so also got the best aggregate score, and his third Olympic gold medal.

Rank	Athlete	Qual	1	2	Final	Total
01 !	Ralf Schumann (GER)	592	51.4	51.5	102.9	694.9
02 !	Sergei Polyakov (RUS)	592.1 !592	51.7	49.0	100.7	692.7
03 !	Sergei Alifirenko (RUS)	592.2 !592	49.9	50.4	100.3	692.3
4	Oleg Tkachyov (UKR)	587	50.6	51.1	101.7	688.7
5	Iulian Raicea (ROU)	588	49.4	50.2	99.6	687.6
6	Chen Yongqiang (CHN)	586	46.9	50.9	97.8	683.8

References