ISSF World Cup: With two dramatic medals, Russia’s rifle legend Sergey Kamenskiy leaves his mark

World No 1 Sergey Kamenskiy has an Olympic silver in men’s 50m rifle 3 position, is the reigning world champion in men’s 10m air rifle and a former European Champion who has already sealed a Tokyo 2020 quota place. He has 12 World Cup medals and at the ongoing International Shooting Sport Federation World Cup in Delhi, is the only shooter to win two medals so far. In fact, he is probably among the most consistent rifle shooters over the last Olympic cycle, making almost every final – a virtual shooting star.

On Monday, the Russian had a comfortable lead of over 2 points in the air rifle final, and was almost assured of gold, a day after missing the men’s rifle 3P gold by the narrowest margin of 0.1 to fast-rising Hungarian Istavan Peni.

Yet, when the 31-year-old clinched his seventh ISSF gold in front of a vociferous crowd at the Dr Karni Singh Shooting Range – the best crowd he has seen, in his own words – he celebrated animatedly, a trait not too often seen in the stoic sport of shooting.

It was the toughest match of his life, the much decorated Kamenskiy declared.

“Nooo, I cannot be without emotion all the time, not after the shooting!

“After the last shot I remove my “concentration condition” and now I am alive again,” he told Scroll.in with a big laugh. “This final… I have never seen anything like this at any World Cup, they are not so noisy the people are going crazy. I tried to concentrate on myself and not on spectators.”

And his enthusiasm while talking about the sport he loves wasn’t affected as he described what was going on in his head during his two finals in two days.

Shooting for the third straight days, the Russian’s both medal matches were dramatic.

In the 10m air rifle qualifying, he started with a 103 and after the first three series, was nowhere close to the top 10. It was due to no fault of his though, as he was placed under an open air vent, he says. But he came back strongly in the last three series to make it to the final.

“It was real hard conditions on the range, the air was flowing straight on me and my rifle was wavering in the wind which pushed me as well. There was additional movement in the rifle and it was hard to concentrate and make a good shot because it is not usual situation. I spent a lot of power and time over that. But I was totally happy I could reach the final,” he explained.

Once in the final, he had a sizable lead towards the end and even a shot of 9.3 didn’t stop him from winning gold as he finished with a score of 249.4. For him, it is the thrill of the contest that keeps him going.

“In the final, I just didn’t think I was ready for the first place but I tried to do my best. Anyway, it is the fight, I need to improve every shot. I saw the lead between me and second place was great and after that I was relaxed,” he added.

He had faced another sticky situation in the men’s 3P final on Sunday, where his kneeling and prone scores weren’t great, but he made for it in the standing series. “Yesterday the lights on the target were very bright, if you see it for a long time it went dark and you could make mistakes like me. After my prone series, I didn’t think I would be in the final.

“But this is the sport, this is the typical situation that happens every time. This is why we like it, gives you great emotions after that, right?”

Need to be more spectator friendly

For Kamenskiy, shooting in his passion and the only sport he has known. His father Igor is a coach at a small shooting club in his hometown of Biysk. “He showed me to shoot when I was nine years old, my brother also started five years before me. He is retired now but I am still continuing and I like it,” he said.

However, shooting is still not a very popular sport in Russia. He joked about how more people recognised him here than back home. “In my country many people know about shooting but rarely get to see it.

“The support for our sport is really big but I think the problem is with advertising and we cannot find a lot of sponsors, which is not good. Maybe the reason is that our competition takes a long time and for spectators it is too boring. The final shooting is really good to see, every time it is like a show. But what happens before final and many spectators ask ‘why only these people in the final. What happened before?’ They will not sit for three hours for the 3-Positions shooting,” he said.

But while he may not draw the crowds at home, the Russian rifle superstar has not stopped raking in the medals for his country since his first senior World Cup podium in 2014. And with his sensational two finals in Delhi, he has definitely made a few more fans in India.