Five years on the same level: Kamensky again became the second in rifle shooting at the Olympic Games in Tokyo

Russian male shooters have never left the Olympic Games without personal medals if they took part in competitions.

Even in 1912, when the team of the Russian Empire arrived in Stockholm, the bronze in the ladder (shooting at clay pigeons) was won by a native of Latvia, Harry Blau.

This highly successful century-old series could have ended in Tokyo.

Until now, luck has accompanied the men's team only in the debuted mixed doubles.

Pistol pilot Artyom Chernousov, with the help of Vitalina Batsarashkina, became a silver medalist, and Sergei Kamensky, together with Yulia Karimova, won bronze in a rifle.

On the last day of the shooting competition, the men had two more chances to excel on their own.

One of them was not used.

In high-speed pistol shooting at 25 meters the day before, according to the results of the first day of qualification, it became clear that Leonid Yekimov was not ready to fight for medals.

With 289 points out of 300 possible, he took only tenth place, but in this exercise the rules are stricter than in others, and to reach the final you need to get into the six.

On Monday, Yekimov again scored only 289 points and dropped to 11th place.

The last opportunity to excel was given by the small-bore rifle shooting competition from three positions at 50 meters. For Sergei Kamensky, it is she who is the main discipline, but not the victorious one. He won silver in this exercise at the World Championships, and at the World Cup this year, and at the past Olympic Games. Then he missed the gold in the most offensive way - after the world record in qualification, the native of Biysk was leading in the final, and when his main rival Nicolo Campriani from Italy made a mistake with the last shot, he took aim even worse.

To his record, which is now Olympic, not world, Kamensky this time lost only one point. In shooting from his knee, he lost only six points, and lying down - and only two at all. In a standing position, the Russian collected nine nines and, as a result, shared the first place with the Chinese Zhang Changhong with 1183 points. For a long time it seemed that for an intermediate victory they would have to argue with the Norwegian Henrik Larsen. After two positions, he had 798 points out of 800 possible, and he performed perfectly while prone. But while standing, Larsen made so many mistakes that he could not even make it to the final.

The decisive stage of the competition began very badly for Kamensky. The first series of knee shooting scored only 49.2 points - no one else scored so little. But in his next attempts, the Russian was rehabilitated. In the third series, he completely replenished the account by 53 points, surpassing all competitors. The 33-year-old finished first position in fourth place, losing 1.6 points to leader Zhang Changhong. Between them are also Belarusian Yuri Shcherbatsevich and Ukrainian Sergei Kulish.

Kamensky began shooting lying down in such a way that you could not imagine better. In the first ten shots, he did not score less than 10.3 points, but twice aimed perfectly at the center of the target and received the maximum 10.9 points. The last round turned out to be a little worse, but not enough to get upset. The Russian has reduced the gap from Zhang Changhong, which is now 0.8 points. Shcherbatsevich and Kulish were left behind, albeit not very far.

Judging by the results of the qualification, Kamensky was better in the stand than all the participants in the final, except for one - a 21-year-old boy from China.

However, there the scoring was not carried out with an accuracy of one tenth, as in the final, so it was too early to give the championship to Zhang Changhun in advance.

Indeed, with his fifth attempt, the athlete from the Middle Kingdom scored 8.5 points, scanty for such a tense final.

Kamensky took the lead ten shots before the end.

But in the last streak before the knockout round, they switched places again.

Already the Chinese did not allow himself mistakes, and the Russian twice did not fall into the circle that brings tens.

Nobody threatened his second place, but for gold it was necessary to win back 0.7 points.

Zhang Changhong did not give this chance. Kamensky performed exactly in the final part of the final, but the Chinese's streak began with shots at 10.3, 10.6 and, finally, with ideal 10.9 points. Such a "gift" that Campriani presented five years ago was not one to dream of this time. Kamensky remained second, losing 1.8 points to the newly-born champion and at the same time the world record holder. The Russian national shooting team completed the Olympic Games in Tokyo with a harvest of two gold, four silver and two bronze medals - their best performance in 17 years.