Shooting at the 1976 Summer Olympics – Mixed 50 metre pistol

The mixed (or "open") ISSF 50 meter pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1976 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fourteenth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 18 July 1976 at the shooting ranges in Montreal. 47 shooters from 31 nations competed.[1] Nations had been limited to two shooters each since the 1952 Games. The event was won by Uwe Potteck, with East Germany finishing 1–2 as Harald Vollmar took silver. It was East Germany's first victory in the event. Rudolf Dollinger of Austria repeated as bronze medalist. Vollmar (the 1968 bronze winner) and Dollinger were the fifth and sixth men to win multiple medals in the free pistol. Potteck had only begun the sport 23 months prior to his victory and his previous personal best in domestic competitions was a 568. In addition, his practice scores leading up to the games averaged around 563 to 565.[2][3]

Men's 50 metre free pistol
at the Games of the XXI Olympiad
Shooting pictogram
VenueOlympic Shooting Range, L'Acadie
Date18 July
Competitors47 from 31 nations
Winning time573 WR
Medalists
1st place, gold medalist(s) Uwe Potteck
 East Germany
2nd place, silver medalist(s) Harald Vollmar
 East Germany
3rd place, bronze medalist(s) Rudolf Dollinger
 Austria
← 1972
1980 →

Background

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This was the 14th 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.[4] 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.[5][6]

Six of the top 10 shooters from the 1972 Games returned: gold medalist Ragnar Skanåker of Sweden, silver medalist Daniel Iuga of Romania, bronze medalist Rudolf Dollinger of Austria, fifth-place finisher (and 1968 bronze medalist) Harald Vollmar of East Germany, eighth-place finisher (and 1968 gold medalist) world record holder Grigory Kosykh of the Soviet Union, and tenth-place finisher Kjell Jacobsson of Sweden. Reigning (1974) world champion Georgi Zapolski was not on the Soviet Olympic team, but runner-up Ivan Nemethy of Czechoslovakia and third-place finisher Harald Vollmar (who had won in 1970) were competing in Montreal.

For the first time, no nations made their debut in the event. The United States made its 13th appearance, most of any nation, having missed only the 1900 event.

Potteck used a Tula TOZ 35.

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.[6][7]

Records

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

World record   Grigory Kosykh (URS)
  Harald Vollmar (GDR)
572 Plzeň, Czechoslovakia
Madrid, Spain
1969
1975
[1][2]
Olympic record   Ragnar Skanåker (SWE) 567 Munich, West Germany 27 August 1972 [3]

Uwe Potteck beat the world record by 1 point, finishing at 573 points. Harald Vollmar, in second place, matched the old Olympic record.

Schedule

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Date Time Round
Sunday, 18 July 1976 8:00 Final

Results

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Rank Shooter Nation Score Notes
  Uwe Potteck   East Germany 573 WR
  Harald Vollmar   East Germany 567
  Rudolf Dollinger   Austria 562
4 Heinz Mertel   West Germany 560
5 Ragnar Skanåker   Sweden 559
6 Vincenzo Tondo   Italy 559
7 Grigory Kosykh   Soviet Union 559
8 Dencho Denev   Bulgaria 557
9 Bertino de Souza   Brazil 556
10 Hershel Anderson   United States 556
11 Jean Faggion   France 554
12 Laszlo Antal   Great Britain 553
Sławomir Romanowski   Poland 553
14 André Porthault   France 552
Kjell Jacobsson   Sweden 552
Ivan Némethy   Czechoslovakia 552
17 Enzo Contegno   Italy 551
18 Lyubcho Dyakov   Bulgaria 550
Roman Burkard   Switzerland 550
Akin Ersoy   Turkey 550
2T Shigetoshi Tashiro   Japan 549
John Rødseth   Norway 549
23 Tom Guinn   Canada 548
24 Jules Sobrian   Canada 547
Gerhard Beyer   West Germany 547
26 Tüdeviin Myagmarjav   Mongolia 546
Marlen Papava   Soviet Union 546
28 Masanobu Ohata   Japan 545
29 Paulo Lamego   Brazil 544
30 Hubert Garschall   Austria 543
31 Niels Dahl   Denmark 542
32 Norman Harrison   Australia 540
Johnny Cannizzaro   Puerto Rico 540
34 Daniel Iuga   Romania 539
35 Miroslav Štefan   Czechoslovakia 537
36 Tserenjavyn Ölziibayar   Mongolia 536
37 Arturo Macapagal   Philippines 534
Richard Crawford   United States 534
39 Jaime Sánchez   Bolivia 531
Javier Padilla   Mexico 531
41 Sutham Aswanit   Thailand 529
42 Jonathan Gillman   Australia 525
43 Juan Casey   Argentina 515
Anne Goffin   Belgium 515
45 Veera Uppapong   Thailand 507
46 Camilo Pedro   Hong Kong 490
47 John Waight   Belize 419

References

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  1. ^ "Shooting at the 1976 Montreal Summer Games: Mixed Free Pistol, 50 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 6 February 2020.
  2. ^ "3 U.S Shooters Win In Montreal". www.mcmillan.info. Retrieved 17 January 2023.
  3. ^ "Leserinterview MIT: Uwe Potteck". www.armas.es. Retrieved 18 January 2023.
  4. ^ "Shooting". Olympedia. Retrieved 24 August 2021.
  5. ^ "Historical Results". issf-sports.org. International Shooting Sport Federation. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  6. ^ a b "Free Pistol, 50 Metres, Open". Olympedia. Retrieved 15 December 2020.
  7. ^ Official Report, vol. 2, p. 430.