ShooterLeuris Pupo became thefirst Cuban qualifier for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games after conquering therapid fire pistol gold medal at 25 meters during the Lima 2022 Pan American Shooting Sports Championship, in Peru.
With this classification, Pupo, who was Olympic champion in London 2012 and silver medalist in Tokyo 2020, will participate in his seventh consecutive Olympic games since Sydney 2000,reported the official newspaperGranma.
Pupo won on Saturday in a close duel for the Pan American gold against the American Henry Turner Leverett. The final was defined by the quality of the shots in the last round, after eight series of shots both shooters equaled 30 points.
Leverett took the silver medal and the Peruvian Marco Carrillo with the bronze, after accumulating 16 points in six rounds. Brazilian Emerson Duarte finished fourth with 13 points in four series.
Two other Cuban shooters, Jorge Félix Álvarez and Alejandro Delgado, advanced to the phase ofranking match in the same event, but they could not advance to the medal dispute.
In addition to Pupo's Olympic classification, the Cuban delegation has so far won seven medals at the Pan American Games in Lima (two gold, two silver and three bronze) and has secured 13 places for the Pan American Games in Santiago 2023.
The only thing left for Cuban participation in the event this Sunday is the 25 meter rapid fire pistol team competition, in which the island's squad, made up of Pupo, Álvarez and Delgado, is among the favorites.
Inthe Tokyo 2020 Olympics, Pupo won the silver medal in that same event, the rapid-fire pistol at 25 meters, aftera rebound that allowed him to reach a final where he scored 29 points.
Pupo had placed eighth once half of the competition was over, but in the second part of the qualifying round he scored series of 99-99-95 and totaled 583 points that allowed him to climb two steps and sneak into the crucial section, where only the Frenchman Jean Quiquampoix prevented him from reaching the top.
In addition to the championship achieved in 2012 and the silver in 2021, the Holguin native had anchored in fifth place in Rio 2016. He also participated in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, with positions between seventh and ninth.
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