10 meter air rifle

10 meter air rifle

Men
Number of shots	60+20
Olympic Games	Since 1984
World Championships	Since 1970
Abbreviation	AR60
Women
Number of shots	40+20
Olympic Games	Since 1984
World Championships	Since 1970
Abbreviation	AR40

10 metre air rifle is an International Shooting Sports Federation (ISSF) shooting event, shot over a distance of 10 metres (10.94 yards) from a standing position with a 4.5 mm (0.177 in) calibre air rifle with a maximum weight of 5.5 kg (12.13 lb). The use of specialised clothing is allowed to improve the stability of the shooting position and prevent chronic back injury which can be caused by the asymmetric offset load on the spine when the rifle is held in position. It is one of the ISSF-governed shooting events included in the Olympic games.

Shots are fired from the standing position only, as opposed to some other airgun shooting disciplines such as for three positions (popular in the United States) or in disabled sports.

The major competitions are the Olympic Games every four years and the ISSF World Shooting Championships every four years (the Games and the Championships are held two years apart). In addition, the event is included in the ISSF World Cup series, the ISSF World Cup Final, in continental championships, and in many other international and national competitions. It is an indoor sport. In many clubs and ranges, electronic targets are now being used instead of the traditional paper targets.

Scores in 10 metre air rifle have improved rapidly during the last few decades and today top competitors sometimes achieve maximum results (a "possible") for the initial or qualification phase (600 for men and 400 for women). The majority of these full marks were achieved at non-directly ISSF supervised international and national-level matches and championships, where official ISSF recognized world records can not be set.^[1] This leads to many national records in fact being equal to the world records. The maximum achievable aggregate score (qualification + final score) is 709 for men and 509 for women. Up to 2013 no top competitor has achieved an official perfect aggregate score.

Rules

Qualification Round

The course of fire is an unlimited number of sighter shots followed by 60 competition shots for men or 40 competition shots for women, all fired within 105 minutes for men or 75 minutes for women. During this initial or qualification phase a maximum of 10 points are awarded for each shot.

Finals

Up until 2012, the top eight shooters from the qualification phase move on to a finals event consisting of 10 shots – each scored to a maximum of 10.9 – with the cumulative score determining the winner (qualification + finals score). The maximum of 10.9 is derived from an additional set of 10 rings within the center 10-point circle, increasing in 0.1 point value as the rings approach the center of the target.

In November 2012, The ISSF announced new finals rules for 2013-2016.^[2] The new finals has shooters starting from zero, eliminating the qualification scores that used to be combined with the finals scores for competition results. The new format begins with 2 series of 3 shots each, to be fired within 150 seconds per series. This is followed by 14 single shots each fired on command with 50 seconds for each shot. Eliminations of the lowest scoring finalists begin after the eighth shot (series + first 2 single shots) and continue after every two shots, until the gold and silver medalists are decided. There are a total of 20 finals shots. If there is a tie for the lowest ranking athlete to be eliminated, the tied athletes will fire additional tie-breaking single shots until the tie is broken.

Equipment

For the 10 metre air rifle and air pistol disciplines match diabolo pellets are used. These pellets have wadcutter heads, meaning the front is (nearly) flat, that leave clean round holes in paper targets for easy scoring. Match pellets are offered in tins and more elaborate packagings that avoid deformation and other damage that could impair their uniformity.

Match air rifle shooters are encouraged to perform shooting group tests with their gun clamped in a machine rest to establish which particular match pellet type performs best for their particular air gun.^[3] To facilitate maximum performance out of various air guns the leading match pellet manufacturers produce pellets with graduated "head sizes", which means the pellets are offered with front diameters from 4.48 mm (0.176 in) up to 4.52 mm (0.178 in).

However at higher and top competitive levels, even these variations are thought too coarse-grained and match pellets are batch tested; that is, the specific gun is mounted in a machine rest test rig and pellets from a specific production run on a specific machine with the same ingredients fed into the process (a batch) are test-fired through the gun.^[4] Many different batches will be tested in this manner, and the pellets which give the smallest consistent group size without fliers (shots which fall outside of the main group) will be selected (small but inconsistent group sizes are not useful to a top competitor); and the shooter will then purchase several tens of thousands of pellets from that batch. Group sizes of 4.5 mm (0.177 in) diameter are theoretically possible, but practically shot groups of 5.0 mm (0.197 in) are considered highly competitive.^[5] Unbatched ammunition, especially if the air gun is not regularly cleaned, is generally thought to be capable of only 8.0 mm (0.315 in) diameter group sizes. Batch testing match pellets for a particular gun is not generally thought to be worthwhile until the shooter reaches a high proficiency level (around the 95% level i.e 570 for men, 380 for women).

The occurrence of full marks scores is mainly due to the continuous development of the employed match air rifles from spring-piston type designs into single-stroke pneumatic and pre-charged pneumatic (PCP) designs. Modern PCP match rifles from the leading manufacturers all feature fast lock times, shoot practically recoilless and vibration free, exhibit minimal movement and balance shifts and can be tailored by an adjustable aluminum stock and other user interfaces and various accessories to the individual shooters personal preferences to promote comfortable and accurate shooting from a standing position. Combined with appropriate match pellets these rifles produce a consistent 10 ring performance, so a non-maximal result during the initial phase can be attributed to the participant.

A typical 10 m air rifle PCP match air rifle

The target: total Ø = 45.5 mm. 4 ring Ø = 30.5 mm. 9 ring Ø = 5.5 mm. 10 ring Ø = 0.5 mm, height 1.4 m above the floor

A typical 4.5 mm (.177 in) 10 m air rifle match pellet

Gallery

• 

  Women's 10 m Air Rifle competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

• 

  Olympic gold medalist Nancy Johnson aims carefully as she competes in the women's 10 m Air Rifle competition at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.

• 

  Hattie Johnson aiming her air rifle. She competed in the women's 10 m Air Rifle competition at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.

• 

  Deena Wigger in 1996

• 

  Competitor resting between shots during an ISSF competition

World Championships, Men

Year	Place	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1966	Wiesbaden	Gerd Kuemmet (FRG)	Auguste Hollenstein (SUI)	Lajos Papp (HUN)
1970	Phoenix	Gottfried Kustermann (FRG)	Klaus Zaehringer (FRG)	Rolf Blomberg (SWE)
1974	Thun	Eugeniusz Pedzisz (POL)	Lanny Bassham (USA)	David Kramer (USA)
1978	Seoul	Oswald Schlipf (FRG)	Barry Dagger (GBR)	Zuccoli G. (ITA)
1979	Seoul	Walter Hillenbrand (FRG)	Hans Braem (SUI)	Barry Dagger (GBR)
1981	Santo Domingo	Pascal Bessy (FRA)	Daniel Nipkow (SUI)	Kurt Rieth (FRG)
1982	Caracas	Frank Rettkowski (GDR)	Pierre Alain Dufaux (SUI)	Andreas Wolfram (GDR)
1983	Innsbruck	Philippe Heberlé (FRA)	Juri Zavolodko (URS)	Frank Rettkowski (GDR)
1985	Mexico City	Philippe Heberlé (FRA)	Bernhard Suess (FRG)	Andreas Kronthaler (AUT)
1986	Suhl	Johann Riederer (FRG)	Daniel Durben (USA)	Bernhard Suess (FRG)
1987	Budapest	Kirill Ivanov (URS)	Matthew Suggs (USA)	Harald Stenvaag (NOR)
1989	Sarajevo	Jean-Pierre Amat (FRA)	Juri Fedkin (URS)	Olaf Hess (GDR)
1990	Moscow	Johann Riederer (FRG)	Rajmond Debevec (YUG)	Masaru Yanagida (JPN)
1991	Stavanger	Harald Stenvaag (NOR)	Eugeni Aleinikov (URS)	Nils Petter Haakedal (NOR)
1994	Milan	Boris Polak (ISR)	Anatoli Klimenko (BLR)	Frank Dobler (GER)
1998	Barcelona	Artem Khadjibekov (RUS)	Jozef Gönci (SVK)	Kean Bae Chae (KOR)
2002	Lahti	Jason Parker (USA)	Li Jie (CHN)	Eugeni Aleinikov (RUS)
2006	Zagreb	Abhinav Bindra (IND)	Alin George Moldoveanu (ROM)	Qinan Zhu (CHN)
2010	Munich	Niccolo Campriani (ITA)	Peter Sidi (HUN)	Gagan Narang (IND)
2014	Granada	Haoran Yang (CHN)	Nazar Louginets (RUS)	Vitali Bubnovich (BLR)

World Championships, Men Team

World Championships, Women

Year	Place	Gold	Silver	Bronze
1970	Phoenix	Tamara Cherkasova (URS)	Desanka Perović (YUG)	Tatiana Ratnikova (URS)
1974	Thun	Tatiana Ratnikova (URS)	Kira Boiko (URS)	Baiba Zarina (URS)
1978	Seoul	Wanda Oliver (USA)	Karen Monez (USA)	Nam Soon Park (KOR)
1979	Seoul	Karen Monez (USA)	Wanda Jewell (USA)	Kyung Ok Chung (KOR)
1981	Santo Domingo	Svetlana Komaristova (URS)	Thoril Brodahl-Radet (NOR)	Young Mi Kim (KOR)
1982	Caracas	Sigrid Lang (FRG)	Lessia Leskiv (URS)	Marlies Helbig (GDR)
1983	Innsbruck	Marlies Helbig (GDR)	Xiaoxuan Wu (CHN)	Silvia Sperber (FRG)
1985	Mexico City	Eva Forian (HUN)	Barbara Troeger (AUT)	Vesela Letcheva (BUL)
1986	Suhl	Vesela Letcheva (BUL)	Valentina Cherkasova (URS)	Deena Wigger (USA)
1987	Budapest	Vesela Letcheva (BUL)	Irene Dufaux Suter (SUI)	Birgit Zeiske (FRG)
1989	Sarajevo	Vesela Letcheva (BUL)	Anna Maloukhina (URS)	Nonka Matova (BUL)
1990	Moscow	Eva Joo (HUN)	Renata Mauer (POL)	Jolande Swinkels (NED)
1991	Stavanger	Eva Forian (HUN)	Svitlana Seledkova (URS)	Wera Stamm (GER)
1994	Milan	Sonja Pfeilschifter (GER)	Christine Chuard (FRA)	Renata Mauer (POL)
1998	Barcelona	Sonja Pfeilschifter (GER)	Renata Mauer (POL)	Jung Mi Kim (KOR)
2002	Lahti	Kateřina Kůrková (CZE)	Li Du (CHN)	Sonja Pfeilschifter (GER)
2006	Zagreb	Li Du (CHN)	Kateřina Kůrková (CZE)	Olga Dovgun (KAZ)
2010	Munich	Yi Siling (CHN)	Wu Liuxi (CHN)	Elania Nardelli (ITA)
2014	Granada	Petra Zublasing (ITA)	Siling Yi (CHN)	Sonja Pfeilschifter (GER)

World Championships, Women Team

World Championships, total medals

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	West Germany	14	6	9	29
2	USSR	7	12	10	29
3	United States	7	12	4	23
4	France	7	2	0	9
5	Bulgaria	6	0	3	9
6	Germany	5	0	4	9
7	China	3	6	1	10
8	Hungary	3	3	3	9
9	Norway	3	2	4	9
10	Russia	3	2	3	8
11	East Germany	3	1	6	10
12	Switzerland	2	6	0	8
13	Yugoslavia	1	4	0	5
14	Poland	1	3	2	6
15	Czech Republic	1	2	0	3
16	Belarus	1	1	0	2
17	Finland	1	0	0	1
17	India	1	0	1	2
17	Israel	1	0	0	1
20	South Korea	0	4	8	12
21	Great Britain	0	1	3	4
22	Austria	0	1	2	3
23	Slovakia	0	1	1	2
24	Romania	0	1	0	1
25	Italy	0	0	1	1
25	Japan	0	0	1	1
25	Kazakhstan	0	0	1	1
25	Netherlands	0	0	1	1
25	Spain	0	0	1	1
25	Sweden	0	0	1	1
25	Ukraine	0	0	1	1
Total		70	70	70	210

Current world records

Current world records in 10 metre air rifle
Men	Qualification	600	Tevarit Majchacheep (THA)  Denis Sokolov (RUS)  Gagan Narang (IND)  Gagan Narang (IND)  Zhu Qinan (CHN)	January 27, 2000 March 1, 2008 November 5, 2008 October 6, 2010 September 22, 2011	Langkawi (MAS) Winterthur (SUI) Bangkok (THA) New Delhi (IND) Wrocław (POL)	RIGHT
	Final	703.8	Zhu Qinan (CHN) (600+103.8)	September 22, 2011	Wrocław (POL)
	Teams	1792	China (Zhu, Wang, Liu)	January 13, 2012	Doha (QAT)
Junior Men	Individual	599	Cheon Min-ho (KOR)  Zhu Qinan (CHN)  Zhu Qinan (CHN)  Sergy Rikhter (ISR)	April 24, 2004 August 16, 2004 October 30, 2004 May 16, 2009	Athens (GRE) Athens (GRE) Bangkok (THA) Munich (GER)
	Teams	1774	Slovakia (Baláž, Homola, Jancek)	March 26, 2004	Győr (HUN)
Women	Qualification	400	Seo Sun-hwa (KOR)  Gao Jing (CHN)  Lioubov Galkina (RUS)  Du Li (CHN)  Lioubov Galkina (RUS)  Suma Shirur (IND)  Lioubov Galkina (RUS)  Monika Haselsberger (AUT)  Barbara Lechner (GER)  Zhao Yinghui (CHN)  Wu Liuxi (CHN)  Du Li (CHN)  Sonja Pfeilschifter (GER)  Kateřina Emmons (CZE)  Lioubov Galkina (RUS)  Yi Siling (CHN)	April 12, 2002 April 22, 2002 August 24, 2002 June 4, 2003 June 14, 2003 February 13, 2004 February 22, 2004 April 22, 2004 March 5, 2005 April 11, 2005 June 11, 2005 October 4, 2006 May 24, 2008 August 9, 2008 November 5, 2008 August 1, 2010	Sydney (AUS) Shanghai (CHN) Munich (GER) Zagreb (CRO) Munich (GER) Kuala Lumpur (MAS) Bangkok (THA) Athens (GRE) Tallinn (EST) Changwon (KOR) Munich (GER) Granada (ESP) Milan (ITA) Beijing (CHN) Bangkok (THA) Munich (GER)
	Final	505.6	Yi Siling (CHN) (400+105.6)	August 1, 2010	Munich (GER)
	Teams	1196	China (Du, Wu, Zhao)	December 6, 2007	Kuwait City (KUW)
Junior Women	Individual	400	Seo Sun-hwa (KOR)  Zhang Yi (CHN)	April 12, 2002 December 6, 2007	Sydney (AUS) Kuwait City (KUW)
	Teams	1188	South Korea (Choi, Kim, Seo)	July 8, 2002	Lahti (FIN)

References

• ISSF World Records
• ISSF Final World Records