On November 6, Beijing time, the 2021 International Shooting Federation President's Cup (Air Rifle Project) was held in Wroclaw, Poland, and the Chinese team had a good performance. Sheng Lihao partnered with Romania's Ile to win the air rifle mixed final by an absolute margin of 16-2. Sheng Lihao and Yang Haoran also successfully entered the semi-finals of men's air rifles, and Jiang Ranxin entered the semi-finals of women's air pistols.
The Presidents Cup is a top event founded by the International Shooting Federation, which invites the top 12 athletes to participate according to the world rankings after the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, and the total prize money of the event has reached $859,000. The winner of the individual event will receive $15,000, and the runner-up and third place will be $12,000 and $10,000, respectively. The winner of the mixed team event is $4,000 per person. Many of the Chinese teams have achieved well in the Olympic Games, and they have all been invited to participate.
In the men's air rifle competition, the Chinese team had Yang Haoran and Sheng Lihao participating, in the qualifiers, Yang Haoran played 634.4 rings in second place, Sheng Lihao 633.7 rings ranked third, they entered the semifinals respectively. Russia's Masrennikov ranked first with 635 rings, Masrennikov, Sheng Lihao, The American Chanel, Russia's Kamensky will all appear in the first semi-final, and Yang Haoran and other 4 people will participate in the second semi-final.
In the women's air rifle competition, Olympic champion Yang Qian was originally invited, but she did not appear on the Presidential Cup. In the qualifying round, Norway's Dastad ranked first with 632.5 rings, while France's Müller, Romania's Ille and the United States' Witz qualified for the semi-finals from 2nd to 4th place.
Pang Wei and Zhang Bowen were initially invited to participate in the men's air pistol event, but they did not go to Poland to compete, in the qualifiers, Germany's Reitz ranked first with 586 rings, and Iran's veteran Froggie ranked second with 584 rings and successfully reached the semifinals.
Jiang Ranxin competed in the women's air pistol competition, she ranked 4th in the qualifiers with 581 rings, and she will appear in the second game of the semi-finals. India's Bakr finished first in qualifying with 585 rings.
This time, the mixed team competition is more interesting, with players from different countries drawing lots to form teams across borders. In the Air Rifle Mixed Qualifying Tournament, Sheng Lihao partnered with Romania's Ile to rank first with 634.7 rings, and Yang Haoran teamed up with Tucker of the United States, and they ranked 6th to advance to the semifinals with 629.7 rings.
The format of the semi-finals is also different from that of traditional matches. Each pair of contestants first played 5 rounds, each shot of two results cumulative, according to the total score of each shot, the four pairs of combinations scored 4 points, 3 points, 2 points and 1 point, the same score. After 5 shots, the combination with the lowest total score is eliminated, and the next 5 shots become 3, 2 and 1 points, and the worst combination after 10 shots is out. The last two pairs of combinations shoot 5 more shots, and the highest score gets 2 points, and the low score is not scored, and the same score is 1 point each. After 15 shots, the first place in the ranking will enter the championship final, and the second place will enter the bronze medal final.
In the first semi-final, Sheng Lihao/Ily and Kozenisk/Meszaros also scored 28 points, and after the combination of Sheng Lihao/Ilyich won the gold medal final. In the second semi-final, Yang Haoran/Tucker played poorly, scoring 18 points after 10 shots and was eliminated from the medal competition.
The gold medal final was played using the existing rules, and as a result, Sheng Lihao/Ile defeated Penny/Ibsen 16-2 to win the air rifle mixed team championship, Penny/Ibson won the second place, and Yang Haoran/Tucker finished 6th.
In the air pistol mixed group competition, Jiang Ranxin and Germany's Gus partnered, they played 572 rings in the qualifiers and ranked 9th in the semi-finals. Jiang Ranxin played more steadily, shooting 291 rings in three groups, gus only played 281 rings, and they missed the semifinals with a difference of 1 ring. In the final of the project, the Bakr/Froggie combination defeated Ramory/Chenosov 16-8 to win the championship.