2022 European Shooting Championships: Denmark, Czech Republic claim Olympic quota spots for Paris 2024

Denmark's Rikke Maeng Ibsen and Czech Republic's Veronika Blazickova secured quota spots for their National Olympic Committees at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games during the Women's 50m Rifle 3 Positions Final at the 2022 European Shooting Championships in Wroclaw, Poland, on Wednesday (14 September).

Ibsen and Blazickova claimed gold and silver, respectively, in the gold medal round.

The opening position, kneeling, ended with Ibsen leading the standings with a score of 104.1 for her 10 shots in the position.

Ibsen, a 2018 world silver medallist, held a 1.1-lead over Switzerland's Sarina Hitz (103.0). After the first round, it was a tight battle with the women ranked third to eighth separated by just 2.0.

After a six-minute changeover, the competition moved into the second position: prone. Ibsen and Hitz continued on at the top of the leaderboard with the Danish shooter expanding her lead to 2.9 points after 20 shots.

Ahead of the final round, it was a close battle for second with Hitz just .2 ahead of Norway's Jenny Stene in third place.

Eliminations began in the third phase, standing, with Hitz falling away and going out early. She finished sixth overall.

Through two elimination rounds, Ibsen and Ukraine's Daria Tykhova began to separate themselves. But in the final round, Tykova opened the door for Blazickova to move ahead into second position and claim the second quota spot for Paris. Tykova took the bronze.

Ibsen finished comfortably ahead after 40 shots, 413.9 to Blazickova's 411.7.

In the gold medal match, Ibsen continued her steady performance that seemed to almost never waiver despite the stakes. She grabbed the gold, 16-6.

Competition runs through Saturday (17 September).