Shooter Zechmeister

“I still need to work on stability”

Richard Zechmeister only has a small chance of making it to the Olympics.(Bild: GEPA)

After Rio is already before Baku - just over a week after returning from Brazil, marksman Richard Zechmeister took off again for Azerbaijan on Wednesday. With the next World Cup on the schedule, it will be very difficult to qualify for the Olympics.

The athlete from Eisenstadt had to make a quick mental note of the quota place tournament in Rio - 45th place and therefore "only" midfield with the air pistol and 29th place with the rapid fire pistol. Regarding the latter, Zechmeister said: "Unfortunately, I messed up the second half of the program." He added: "I had expected more, I thought I was a bit further along in the technical implementation. I still have to work on stability in particular, but there's not much time left for the Olympic qualifiers."

Richard Zechmeister will start in Baku with Sylvia Steiner in the mixed competition.(Bild: GEPA)

The last two quota places in the rapid fire pistol will be awarded from May 23rd at the European Championships in Osijek (Croatia). Zechmeister is now gaining further competition practice at the World Cup in Baku. The chance of jumping on the Olympic bandwagon via the world rankings - in which the points from the World Cup are included - is generally very slim. In the air pistol ranking, for example, the third-placed shooter (!) does not yet have a quota place - Zechmeister is currently in 46th place. The situation is no different with the rapid-fire pistol: The 48-year-old is currently 60th, the best without a quota place eleventh

Start with mixed competition
The World Cup in Baku starts on Thursday with the mixed team (air pistol), followed by the individual competition on Friday. And from Monday, two rapid fire competitions are on the program.