France, Germany, Poland, Czech Republic and Norway claim Paris 2024 Olympic sport shooting quota spots at the 2022 European Championships

Doreen Vennekamp secured Germany a quota spot for women’s 25m Pistol shooting at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, after she won the title at the 2022 European Championships in Wroclaw, Poland, on Wednesday (14 September).

The 27-year-old clinched gold at the WKS Śląsk Wrocław shooting range, adding to her two World Championship bronze medals in both the team and the individual event in Changwon, Republic of Korea, in 2018.

Vennekamp led the way throughout every round, qualifying first, then topping the rankings before taking home the gold with 29 hits out of 40 in the final.

Poland's Klaudia Bres, a gold medallist in the 2019 championships in the 10m, showed great composure in front of a home crowd – especially after her gun jammed in the second ranking match – to claim silver and the second Olympic quota spot.

Renata Sike missed out on an automatic place for Hungary at Paris 2024 but claimed bronze, matching her World Championship third-place in 2014.

Drama unfolded in the first round for Greek favourite, Anna Korakaki, who failed to make it past the first stage. Waiting anxiously for Bres to re-take the round in which she had a gun failure, the 2016 Olympic champion looked shell-shocked not to progress, scoring 11 out of 20, and hitting just one target in the first five shots.

Men's Rapid Fire Pistol 25m

Clement Bessaguet secured France a quota spot for men’s 25m Rapid Fire Pistol shooting at his home Games at Paris 2024, after he won the title at the 2022 European Championships in Wroclaw, Poland, on Wednesday (14 September).

The 31-year-old claimed gold, adding to his 2018 team world title in the 25m standard Pistol in 2018 and silver at the same event in the center fire Pistol. He will hope to be selected to make a second appearance at an Olympic Games after coming seventh in this discipline at Tokyo 2020, last summer.

Despite erratic form in the final, Germany’s Oliver Geis grabbed the second Olympic quota place courtesy of his silver medal, just one point behind the Frenchman. The 31-year-old finished 13th and 17th, respectively, at the Tokyo and Rio Olympic Games, and will be hoping for a hat-trick of appearances.

Pavlo Korostylov of Ukraine won bronze, just missing out on an Olympic quota spot for his nation. The 2018 world champion in 25m standard pistol has competed in two Olympic Games, coming ninth in this event and 16th at Rio 2016.

Czech Republic's Martin Strnad missed out on both a podium and Olympic spot, coming in fourth.

Ranking jostling

The first ranking match was super close with Korostylov and Bessaguet through to medal match on 15 and 14 points, respectively with Korostylov's compatriot, Maksym Horodynets on 13 and Germany's Florian Peter (12) just missing out.

In the second ranking match, Geis scored an outstanding 18 out of 20 to go through to the medal matches. After starting slowly Strnad joined him, with 14 out of 20 while a disappointed Sam William Gowin of Great Britain couldn’t recover from a one out of five series early on.

2022 European Championships: Rifle 3 Positions

Petr Nymbursky and Jon-Hermann Hegg had already claimed Paris 2024 Olympic quota spots for Czech Republic and Norway, respectively, by reaching the final round of the men's Rifle 3 Positions in Wroclaw, Poland on Wednesday.

A dramatic final match-up saw the first to 16 points – claiming two points for each round they won – decide the top two placings. The pair were neck and neck throughout before coming down to a shoot-out for the gold medal.

Defending champion Hegg score a lowly 8.9, giving Nymbursky the opportunity to claim the ultimate prize. Finishing with a flourish, Nymbursky scored 10.8 to claim the title.

Jiri Privratsky was quick to celebrate with his compatriot, happy that he would join Nymbursky on the podium in third place.

2022 European Championships 25/50m schedule (finals)

All times Central European Summer Time / CEST (GMT +2 hours)

• Wednesday 14 September 2022

19:00: Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions (50m 3P M) - Two Paris 2024 Olympic quota berths available

• Thursday 15 September

11:30: Mixed 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

17:00: Women’s 50m 3 Positions (50m 3P W) - Two Paris 2024 Olympic quota berths available

• Friday 16 September

11:15: Women’s team 25m Pistol

13:00: Mixed 50m 3 Positions

17:30: Mixed 50m Rifle Prone

• Saturday 17 September

13:00: Men’s team 50m 3 Positions

16:45: Women’s team 50m 3 Positions

18:30: Men’s team 25m Rapid Fire Pistol

Action in the Paris 2024 Qualifier disciplines will be broadcast on Olympic Channel via Olympics.com (territorial restrictions apply).