The men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics programme. It was the ninth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 27 and 28 July 1952 at the shooting ranges in Helsinki with 53 shooters from 28 nations competing. The maximum number of shooters per nation was reduced to 2, from 3 in previous Games.Official Report, p. 454. The event was won by Károly Takács of Hungary, the first man to successfully defend an Olympic rapid fire title (and second to win multiple medals of any color). Hungary also took the second place, with Szilárd Kun earning silver. Gheorghe Lichiardopol of Romania won bronze in his nation's debut in the event.

Background

This was the ninth appearance of what had been standardised in 1948 as the men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol event, the only event on the 2020 programme that traces back to 1896. The event has been held at every Summer Olympics except 1904 and 1928 (when no shooting events were held) and 1908; it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years. There is no women's equivalent on the Olympic programme, as of 2021. The first five events were quite different, with some level of consistency finally beginning with the 1932 event—which, though it had differences from the 1924 competition, was roughly similar. The 1936 competition followed the 1932 one quite closely. The post-World War II event substantially altered the competition once again.

Four of the top 10 shooters from 1948 returned: gold medalist Károly Takács of Hungary, silver medalist Carlos Enrique Díaz Sáenz Valiente of Argentina, fourth-place finisher (and 1936 bronze medalist Torsten Ullman of Sweden, and ninth-place finisher Michelangelo Borriello of Italy. The two-time reigning (1949 and 1952) world champion was Huelet Benner of the United States; Penait Calcai of Romania had been the runner-up in 1952 and Valiente (the 1947 world champion) had placed third.

Bulgaria, Canada, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Venezuela each made their debut in the event. The United States made its seventh appearance in the event, most of any nation.

Competition format

The competition format followed the 1948 format, now very close to the modern rapid fire pistol competition after significant variation before World War II. Each shooter fired 60 shots. These were done in two courses of 30; each course consisted of two stages of 15; each stage consisted of three series of 5. In each stage, the time limit for each series was 8 seconds for the first, 6 seconds for the second, and 4 seconds for the third.

A holdover from the previous Games was that full-body silhouettes, rather than round targets, continued to be used; however, scoring rings had been added so that now each shot was scored up to 10 rather than being strictly hit or miss. Hits were the primary measurement of success; points were only used to differentiate between shooters with the same number of hits.

Records

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

No new world or Olympic records were set during the competition.

Schedule

Date Time Round Sunday, 27 July 1952 9:00 Course 1 Monday, 28 July 1952 9:00 Course 2

Results

A shoot-off was held between Kun and Lichiardopol for the silver and bronze medals; both tied at 142 in the first shoot-off round of 15 shots. In the second shoot-off round, Kun won 140 to 137.Official Report, p. 455.

Rank Shooter Nation Hits Score Károly Takács 60 579 Szilárd Kun 60 578 Gheorghe Lichiardopol 60 578 4 Carlos Enrique Díaz Sáenz Valiente 60 577 5 Pentti Linnosvuo 60 577 6 Penait Calcai 60 575 7 William McMillan 60 575 8 Vasily Frolov 60 573 9 Giorgio Pennacchietti 60 572 10 Oscar Cervo 60 571 11 Vasily Novikov 60 569 12 Mario de Armas 60 568 13 Emilio Álava 60 568 14 Veli-Jussi Hölsö 60 566 15 Ernesto Montemayor, Sr. 60 565 16 Michelangelo Borriello 60 561 17 Georgi Keranov 60 561 18 Carlos Rodríguez 60 561 19 Ladislav Ondřej 60 560 20 Herman Barreto 60 558 21 Rogério Tavares 60 556 22 José Rua 60 553 23 Ludwig Leupold 60 553 24 Paul Wehner 60 553 25 Todor Stanchev 60 552 26 Rudolf Schnyder 60 551 27 Per Winge 60 549 28 Guilherme Cavalcanti 60 547 29 Ernesto Rivera 60 546 30 Gunnar Svendsen 60 543 31 Zlatko Poláček 60 535 32 José Gómez 60 531 33 Herman Schultz 60 512 34 Huelet Benner 59 572 35 Gösta Pihl 59 565 36 Martin Gison 59 550 37 Oddvar Wenner Nilssen 59 546 38 Pedro Simão 59 543 39 Ernesto Herrero 59 540 40 Torsten Ullman 59 539 41 Henry Steele 59 538 42 Edson Warner 59 538 43 Ludovic Heraud 59 537 44 Albino de Jesus 59 530 45 Félix Cortes 58 537 46 Konstantinos Mylonas 58 533 47 Per Nielsen 58 527 48 Henry Swire 58 526 49 Francisco Sandoval 58 508 50 André Martin 58 506 51 Angelos Papadimas 56 506 52 Carlos Monteverde 55 483 53 Charles Bergonzi 46 370

References