Shooting at the 1980 Summer Olympics – Mixed 50 metre pistol

The mixed (or "open") ISSF 50 meter pistol was one of the seven sport shooting events at the 1980 Summer Olympics. There were 33 competitors from 19 nations. Nations had been limited to two shooters each since the 1952 Games. The gold medal was won by Aleksandr Melentyev of the Soviet Union who broke the world record with 581 points. It was the Soviet Union's third victory in the event, second-most behind the United States at four. Melentyev defeated Harald Vollmar of East Germany by 13 points. For Vollmar this was his third Olympic medal in the same event, having won silver at 1976 Montreal and bronze at 1968 Mexico City. Vollmar was the first man to win at least three medals in the free pistol. Lyubcho Dyakov's bronze was Bulgaria's first medal in the event.

Mixed 50 metre pistol at the Games of the XXII Olympiad
Medal winners in 50 metre pistol. From left to right: Harald Vollmar, Aleksandr Melentyev and Lyubcho Dyakov.
Venue	Dynamo Shooting Range
Date	20 July 1980
Competitors	33 from 19 nations
Winning score	581 WR
Medalists
Aleksandr Melentyev  Soviet Union Harald Vollmar  East Germany Lyubcho Dyakov  Bulgaria

Background

This was the 15th 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. 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.

Three of the top 10 shooters from the 1976 Games returned: gold medalist Uwe Potteck of East Germany, silver medalist (and 1968 bronze medalist and 1972 fifth-place finisher) Harald Vollmar of East Germany, and fifth-place finisher (and 1972 gold medalist) Ragnar Skanåker of Sweden. Moritz Minder of Switzerland was the reigning (1978) world champion and world record holder, but was not competing in Moscow due to the American-led boycott. Skanåker had been the runner-up.

Ireland, Laos, North Korea, and Zimbabwe each made their debut in the event. Sweden made its 13th appearance, matching the boycotting United States for most of any nation.

Melentyev used a TsKIB SOO MЦ55.

Competition format

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.

Records

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

World record	Moritz Minder (SUI)	577			[1]
Olympic record	Uwe Potteck (GDR)	573	Montreal, Canada	18 July 1976	[2]

Aleksandr Melentyev beat the world record by 4 points, finishing at 581 points.

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
Sunday, 20 July 1980	9:00	Final

Results

Rank	Shooter	Nation	1	2	3	4	5	6	Total	Notes
	Aleksandr Melentyev	Soviet Union	95	96	98	98	98	96	581	WR
	Harald Vollmar	East Germany	93	93	93	97	98	94	568
	Lyubcho Dyakov	Bulgaria	96	92	93	92	95	97	565
4	So Gil-San	North Korea	91	97	94	93	93	97	565
5	Seppo Saarenpää	Finland	91	98	96	94	95	91	565
6	Sergei Pyzhianov	Soviet Union	91	96	92	96	94	95	564
7	Ragnar Skanåker	Sweden	90	94	94	95	93	97	563
8	Paavo Palokangas	Finland	91	94	93	96	94	93	561
9	Sylvio Carvalho	Brazil	91	94	89	95	93	96	558
10	Sławomir Romanowski	Poland	89	96	82	92	95	94	558
11	Lyuben Popov	Bulgaria	91	92	94	95	92	94	558
	Enrico Rabbachin	Italy	88	92	95	95	97	91	558
13	Erwin Matelski	Poland	92	95	90	92	93	95	557
	Lajos Nagy	Hungary	91	93	94	94	91	94	557
	Ivan Némethy	Czechoslovakia	96	92	95	90	93	91	557
16	Uwe Potteck	East Germany	91	91	94	93	93	94	556
17	Daniel Iuga	Romania	95	90	92	91	95	92	555
18	Carlos Hora	Peru	92	93	91	94	90	91	551
	Kim Ji-jong	North Korea	88	93	90	93	96	91	551
20	Phan Huy Khảng	Vietnam	91	89	93	93	93	91	550
21	Rudolf Seres	Hungary	93	95	88	90	90	93	549
22	Ngô Hữu Kính	Vietnam	91	91	90	94	93	89	548
23	Staffan Oscarsson	Sweden	89	87	93	96	93	89	547
24	Roberto Ferraris	Italy	96	87	91	93	95	84	546
25	Ken Stanford	Ireland	87	89	87	95	95	92	545
26	Mariano Lara	Costa Rica	93	89	93	88	91	88	542
27	Ian Redmond	Zimbabwe	83	92	91	85	89	87	527
28	Maureen Reichert	Zimbabwe	88	86	81	90	90	89	524
29	Rodrigo Ruiz	Costa Rica	84	89	84	84	79	92	512
30	Gianfranco Giardi	San Marino	89	85	83	86	84	82	509
31	Eliseo Paolini	San Marino	87	81	89	90	84	76	507
32	Souvanny Souksavath	Laos	84	88	86	80	88	76	502
33	Syseuy	Laos	80	81	79	85	81	75	481