Shooting at the 1984 Summer Olympics – Men's 50 metre pistol

The men's ISSF 50 meter pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1984 Summer Olympics programme. The competition was held on July 29, 1984, at the shooting ranges in Los Angeles. 56 shooters from 38 nations competed.[1] Nations had been limited to two shooters each since the 1952 Games. The event was won by Xu Haifeng of China, with his countryman Wang Yifu taking bronze. As the free pistol was the first medal event in 1984 and the People's Republic of China fully competed for the first time in 1984, these were the first Olympic medals won by competitors from that nation.[2] Ragnar Skanåker of Sweden took silver, 12 years after winning his first medal (gold in 1972); he was the seventh man to win multiple medals in the event and third to win medals 12 years apart (Torsten Ullman had medaled in 1936 and 1948, Harald Vollmar in 1968, 1976, and 1980).

Men's 50 metre free pistol
at the Games of the XXIII Olympiad
Shooting pictogram
VenuePrado Regional Park
DateJuly 29
Competitors56 from 38 nations
Winning score566
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Xu Haifeng
 China
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Ragnar Skanåker
 Sweden
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Wang Yifu
 China
← 1980
(mixed)
1988 →

Background

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This was the 16th appearance of the ISSF 50 meter pistol event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1920 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1936 to 2016; it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years. A separate women's event would be introduced in 1984.[3] 1896 and 1908 were the only Games in which the distance was not 50 metres; the former used 30 metres and the latter 50 yards.[4][2]

Three of the top 10 shooters from the 1980 Games returned: seventh-place finisher (and 1972 gold medalist and 1976 fifth-place finisher) Ragnar Skanåker of Sweden, eighth-place finisher Paavo Palokangas of Finland, and ninth-place finisher Sylvio Carvalho of Brazil. Skanåker was also the reigning (1982) world champion. Many of the rest of the 1980 Olympians were from Eastern Bloc nations, including the reigning gold medalist and 1982 world championship runner-up Aleksandr Melentyev of the Soviet Union.

The People's Republic of China, Chinese Taipei, Ecuador, India, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and Senegal each made their debut in the event. Sweden and the United States each made their 14th appearance, tied for most of any nation.

Xu used a Hämmerli 150.

Competition format

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Each shooter fired 60 shots, in 6 series of 10 shots each, at a distance of 50 metres. The target was round, 50 centimetres in diameter, with 10 scoring rings. Scoring for each shot was up to 10 points, in increments of 1 point. The maximum score possible was 600 points. Any pistol was permitted.[2][5]

Records

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Prior to this competition, the existing world and Olympic records were as follows.

World record   Aleksandr Melentyev (URS) 581 Moscow, Soviet Union 20 July 1980
Olympic record   Aleksandr Melentyev (URS) 581 Moscow, Soviet Union 20 July 1980

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

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Date Time Round
Sunday, 29 July 1984 9:00 Final

Results

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Rank Shooter Nation Score
  Xu Haifeng   China 566
  Ragnar Skanåker   Sweden 565
  Wang Yifu   China 564
4 Jürgen Hartmann   West Germany 560
5 Vincenzo Tondo   Italy 560
6 Philippe Cola   France 559
7 Hector de Lima Carrilla   Venezuela 558
8 Paavo Palokangas   Finland 558
9 Erich Buljung   United States 558
10 Tu Tsai-hsing   Chinese Taipei 558
11 Sorin Babii   Romania 555
Carlos Hora   Peru 555
Vinzenz Schweighofer   Austria 555
14 Rolf Beutler   Switzerland 554
Don Nygord   United States 554
16 Seo In-taek   South Korea 553
17 Bernardo Tovar   Colombia 552
18 Tom Guinn   Canada 551
Chikafumi Hirai   Japan 551
20 Phil Adams   Australia 550
Ernesto Alais   Argentina 550
Walter Bauza   Argentina 550
23 Gerhard Beyer   West Germany 548
Galo Miño   Ecuador 548
25 Sylvio Carvalho   Brazil 546
Mariano Lara   Costa Rica 546
27 Ángel Corsino Fernández   Spain 543
Arthur Spencer   Great Britain 543
29 Ove Gunnarsson   Sweden 540
Shigetoshi Tashiro   Japan 540
31 Shuaib Adam   Kenya 539
Baljit Singh Kharab   India 539
Park Seung-rin   South Korea 539
Somchai Thingpakdee   Thailand 539
35 Sabiahmad Abdullah Ahad   Malaysia 537
36 Gary Aramist   Israel 536
Gilbert U   Hong Kong 536
38 Luis Ortiz   Colombia 535
39 José Jacques Pena   Portugal 533
40 Herbert Binder   Switzerland 532
Edgar Espinoza   Venezuela 532
Pedro García Jr.   Peru 532
43 Paúl Margraff   Ecuador 531
44 William Henderson   Virgin Islands 528
45 Rolf Lofstad   Norway 523
46 Geoffrey Robinson   Great Britain 521
47 Juma Al-Rahbi   Oman 520
48 Manhi Al-Mutairy   Saudi Arabia 513
Jean-Pierre Gasparotti   Monaco 513
50 Joël Nigiono   Monaco 505
51 Germano Bollini   San Marino 500
Gianfranco Giardi   San Marino 500
53 Amadou Ciré Baal   Senegal 499
54 Nirundon Lepananon   Thailand 494
55 Roland Scott   Virgin Islands 459
56 Ali Al-Ghafiri   Oman 445

References

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  1. ^ "Shooting at the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Games: Men's Free Pistol, 50 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on April 18, 2020. Retrieved February 14, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c "Free Pistol, 50 Metres, Men's". Olympedia. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  3. ^ "Shooting". Olympedia. Retrieved August 24, 2021.
  4. ^ "Historical Results". issf-sports.org. International Shooting Sport Federation. Retrieved December 15, 2020.
  5. ^ Official Report, vol. 2, p. 535.