The men's ISSF 50 meter pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1952 Summer Olympics programme. It was the eighth appearance of the event. The competition was held on 25 July 1952 at the shooting ranges in Helsinki. 48 shooters from 28 nations competed. 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 Huelet Benner of the United States, the nation's first victory in the event since 1920 (and fourth overall, most of any nation). Silver went to Ángel León Gozalo of Spain and bronze to Ambrus Balogh of Hungary; they were the first medals in the free pistol for both nations.
Background
This was the eighth appearance of the ISSF 50 meter pistol event. The event was held at every Summer Olympics from 1896 to 1920 (except 1904, when no shooting events were held) and from 1936 to 2016; it was nominally open to women from 1968 to 1980, although very few women participated these years. A separate women's event would be introduced in 1984. 1896 and 1908 were the only Games in which the distance was not 50 metres; the former used 30 metres and the latter 50 yards.
Five of the top 10 shooters from the 1948 Games returned: bronze medalist (and 1936 gold medalist) Torsten Ullman of Sweden, fourth-place finisher Huelet Benner of the United States, fifth-place finisher Beat Rhyner of Switzerland, sixth-place finisher Ángel León Gozalo of Spain, and seventh-place finisher Ambrus Balogh of Hungary. Ullman was again the world champion in 1952, two weeks before the Games, his fifth time (1933, 1935, 1937, and 1947). Benner finished third at the world championships.
Bulgaria, Egypt, Guatemala, Mexico, the Soviet Union, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia each made their debut in the event. Greece and the United States each made their seventh appearance, tied for most of any nation.
Benner used a Hämmerli 100.
Competition format
The competition had each shooter fire 60 shots, in 6 series of 10 shots each, at a distance of 50 metres. The target was round, 50 centimetres in diameter, with 10 scoring rings. Scoring for each shot was up to 10 points, in increments of 1 point. The maximum score possible was 600 points. Any pistol was permitted.Official Report, p. 457.
Records
Prior to this 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 Friday, 25 July 1952 9:00 Final
Results
Rank Shooter Nation Score Huelet Benner 553 Ángel León Gozalo 550 Ambrus Balogh 549 4 Konstantin Martazov 546 5 Lev Vainshtein 546 6 Torsten Ullman 543 7 Klaus Lahti 541 8 Beat Rhyner 539 9 Francisco Sandoval 535 10 Oiva Tylli 535 11 Hugo Lundkvist 532 12 Ronald Guy 531 13 Raúl Ibarra 530 14 Ferenc Décsey 530 15 František Maxa 530 16 Mario de Armas 526 17 Gunnar Svendsen 523 18 José Reyes Rodríguez 523 19 Jorge de Oliveira 522 20 Luciano Galesi 522 21 Edvard Delorenco 521 22 Félix Cortes 521 23 Rudolf Vuk 521 24 Miroslav Proft 519 25 Rolf Klementsen 518 26 Stoyan Popov 517 27 Alberto Guerrero 517 28 Antoine Shousha 517 29 Abdel Sattar Tarabulsi 517 30 Harry Wendell Reeves 515 31 Carlos Choque 515 32 Martin Gison 515 33 Álvaro dos Santos Filho 513 34 Fritz Krempel 512 35 Enrique Ojeda 510 36 Renato Sacchi 509 37 Hector de Lima Polanco 506 38 Alexander Specker 506 39 Herman Schultz 501 40 André Martin 500 41 Nikolay Khristozov 500 42 William White 498 43 Georgios Stathis 496 44 Ramiro Ortiz 492 45 Mohamed Ahmed Aly 491 46 Khalil Hilmi 489 47 Roger Tauvel 489 48 Carlos Marrero 483
References