Shooting at the 1960 Summer Olympics – Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol

The men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1960 Summer Olympics programme. It was the 11th appearance of the event. The competition was held on 8 and 9 September 1960 at the shooting ranges in Rome. 57 shooters from 35 nations competed.[1] Nations had been limited to two shooters each since the 1952 Games. The event was won by William McMillan of the United States, the nation's first victory in the event since 1924 and third overall (most of any nation). Silver went to Pentti Linnosvuo of Finland, similarly taking his nation's first medal since 1924. Aleksandr Zabelin of the Soviet Union earned bronze. The three men had tied for first after the main round of 60 shots and had required a three-way shoot-off to determine the medals.

Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol
at the Games of the XVII Olympiad
William McMillan (left) being commended by the Commandant of the Marine Corps after winning the rapid fire pistol event
VenueUmberto I Shooting Range
Dates8–9 September
Competitors57 from 35 nations
Winning score587 =OR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) William McMillan
 United States
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Pentti Linnosvuo
 Finland
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Aleksandr Zabelin
 Soviet Union
← 1956
1964 →

Background

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This was the 11th 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.[2] 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.[3][4] 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.[5] The post-World War II event substantially altered the competition once again.[6]

Six of the top 10 shooters from 1956 returned: gold medalist Ștefan Petrescu of Romania, silver medalist Yevgeny Cherkasov of the Soviet Union, fourth-place finisher (and 1952 fifth-place finisher) Pentti Linnosvuo of Finland, fifth-place finisher Oscar Cervo of Argentina, seventh-place finisher Kalle Sievänen of Finland, and tenth-place finisher Carlos Monteverde of Venezuela. Reigning world champion and world record holder Aleksandr Kropotin of the Soviet Union did not compete in Rome; fellow Soviet runner-up (and co-record holder, having lost to Kropotin in a shoot-off) Alexander Zabelin was. Petrescu had finished third at the world championships. William McMillan, who had finished seventh at the 1952 Olympics and second at the 1954 world championships before missing the 1956 Games due to equipment failure at the U.S. trials, also returned.

The Republic of China, India, Morocco, Pakistan, South Korea, Thailand, and the United Arab Republic each made their debut in the event; East and West Germany competed together as the United Team of Germany for the first time. The United States made its ninth appearance in the event, most of any nation.

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 1948–1956 was that hits were no longer the primary measurement of success. Ranking was now done by score, regardless of hits.[2][7]

Records

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Prior to the competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.[8]

World record   Aleksandr Kropotin (URS)
  Alexander Zabelin (URS)
592 Moscow, Soviet Union 1958
Olympic record   Ștefan Petrescu (ROU) 587 Melbourne, Australia 4–5 December 1956

The three medalists all matched the Olympic record at 587 points.

Schedule

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Date Time Round
Thursday, 8 September 1960 9:00 Course 1
Friday, 9 September 1960 9:00 Course 2

Results

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Rank Shooter Nation Score Notes
  William McMillan   United States 587 =OR, shoot-off: 147
  Pentti Linnosvuo   Finland 587 =OR, shoot-off: 139
  Aleksandr Zabelin   Soviet Union 587 =OR, shoot-off: 135
4 Hansruedi Schneider   Switzerland 586
5 Ștefan Petrescu   Romania 585
6 Gavril Maghiar   Romania 583
7 Czesław Zając   Poland 582
8 Jiří Hrneček   Czechoslovakia 582
9 Josef Šváb   Czechoslovakia 581
10 Jan Wallén   Sweden 580
11 Stig Berntsson   Sweden 580
12 Yevgeny Cherkasov   Soviet Union 579
13 Tony Clark   Great Britain 579
14 Heinz Franke   United Team of Germany 579
15 Ferenc Kun   Hungary 578
16 Laurence Mosely   United States 577
17 Kalle Sievänen   Finland 576
18 Luis Palomo   Spain 576
19 Luis Jiménez   Mexico 576
20 Heinrich Gollwitzer   United Team of Germany 575
21 Jean Renaux   France 575
22 Jacques Decaux   France 575
23 Roberto Mazzoni   Italy 573
24 Robert Hassell   Great Britain 573
25 József Gyönyörű   Hungary 573
26 Carlos Crassus   Venezuela 572
27 Carlos Monteverde   Venezuela 571
28 Héctor Elizondo   Mexico 570
29 Sergio Varetto   Italy 570
30 Fumio Ryosenan   Japan 569
31 Michael Papps   Australia 569
32 Oscar Cervo   Argentina 567
33 Alkiviadis Papageorgopoulos   Greece 566
34 Prateep Polphantin   Thailand 565
35 Osamu Ochiai   Japan 565
36 Guillermo Cornejo   Peru 564
37 Hans Albrecht   Switzerland 563
38 Minervino González   Spain 561
39 Garfield McMahon   Canada 558
40 Leon Lyon   Puerto Rico 558
41 Pedro García Sr.   Peru 557
42 Ambrosio Rocha   Brazil 556
43 Neville Sayers   Australia 552
44 Sim Mun-seop   South Korea 552
45 Ali El-Kashef   United Arab Republic 550
46 Sumol Sumontame   Thailand 549
47 Chen An-hu   Formosa 546
48 Georgios Marmaridis   Greece 544
49 Rogério Tavares   Portugal 542
50 António Martins   Portugal 537
51 Per Nielsen   Denmark 532
52 Nicolaus Zwetnow   Norway 531
53 Horacio Miranda   Philippines 531
54 Naji El-Mekki   Morocco 501
55 Muhammad Iqbal   Pakistan 501
56 Godfrey Brunner   Canada 493
57 Paul Cheema Singh   India 434

References

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  1. ^ "Shooting at the 1960 Rome Summer Games: Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 14 December 2020.
  3. ^ "Shooting". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  4. ^ "Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1896)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  5. ^ "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1936)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  6. ^ "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men (1948)". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  7. ^ Official Report, vol. 2, p. 955.
  8. ^ Official Report, vol. 2, p. 954.