By World Shooting Para Sport

Poland made shooting Para sport history as two of their athletes became the first vision impaired champions in the sport, following the classification's competitive debut at the International Shooting Competition Hannover, Germany.

Barbara Moskal and Krzysztof Ruszkiewicz collected the gold medals on offer for the new sport class, securing the VI1 (mixed 10m air rifle standing SH3) and VI2 (mixed 10m air rifle prone SH3), respectively.

Credit: Hannover Local Organising Committee

Moskal was chasing Spain’s Sonia Rivero in the elimination stage, but the Polish athlete found her rhythm in the third round, overtaking the Spaniard and finishing with a 218.0 score, well ahead of second-place Patrick Moor from Austria. Rivero rounded off the podium.

It was a tighter contest for Moskal’s compatriot Ruszkiewicz, who held a lead of just 0.4 points entering the elimination stage.

Finland’s Timo Nystrom was within gold-medal range, and despite hitting double 10s in his last round, his 237.9 score was 1.9 off his Polish opponent. Spain secured another bronze medal from Zurine Goni.

Hannover’s event, which finished on Sunday, was the first competition to take place since World Shooting Para Sport welcomed vision impaired athletes into their family in February.

The International Blind Sports Federation transferred governance to World Shooting Para Sport after helping to develop the sport.