Leuris Pupo wins gold medal in Pan American sports shooting championship

November 12, 2022

Cuban Leuris Pupo, a two-time Olympic medalist, won today the gold medal in the rapid-fire pistol at 25 meters (m), at the Pan American Sports Shooting Championship held in Lima, Peru, through tomorrow Sunday.

Pupo, champion in the competition under the five rings at London 2012 and winner of the silver medal at Tokyo 2020, prevailed in a thrilling final against American Henry Leverett.

In the decisive round of the four best shooters, both competitors tied at 30 points, but in the final five shots the Cuban athlete had no misses while Leverett did miss once, so he had to settle for the silver medal.

The local Marco Carrillo took the bronze medal in that event, accumulating 16 points and surpassing the 13 of Brazilian Emerson Duarte, who ultimately finished in fourth place.

With that performance, Pupo once again demonstrated his high level in important moments and secured his spot for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, where he will go in search of his third podium in those competitions.

Also this Saturday, for the Caribbean nation, Jorge Félix Álvarez and Alejandro Delgado managed to include themselves among the eight finalists, although they were eliminated in that round and did not advance to the next stage.

Álvarez, bronze medalist at the World Cup in Munich, Germany, in 2018, at the end of the two qualifying phases led the island's trio of pistol shooters with an accumulated total of 579 points.

Champion three years ago at the continental multisport event, precisely in the Peruvian capital, the Havana shooter achieved 287 points (98-96-93) in the three shooting series on Saturday, which combined with the 292 (96-99-97) obtained this Friday gave him that total.

Behind him was his teammate Pupo, who finished with a score of 577, with a first round of 286 (98-97-91); while today he improved his performance to 291 (96-99-96), according to the official site of the International Federation of that sport.

To complete the good performance by the Cubans, Delgado ended seventh with 566, distributed in 289 (96-97-96) on the first day and 277 (97-99-81) on the second date.