Li Yuehong of China, centre, collected an Olympic quota place as well as a gold medal ©ITG

China's Li Yuehong won the men's 25 metres pistol crown at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Championships in Baku.

Li only missed one shot in the whole competition to finish with a total score of 39 after a magnificent performance which also earned him a quota place for the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Clement Bessaguet of France scored 30 to take silver.

World number three Florian Peter of Germany took bronze, his first with 34 hits.

"Before the competition I never thought I would have just the one miss, that was not in my mind," Li told insidethegames.

Li Yuehong, centre, admitted he had not expected to shoot so well in the final of the men's 25 metres pistol ©ITG
Li Yuehong, centre, admitted he had not expected to shoot so well in the final of the men's 25 metres pistol ©ITG

Clement Bessaguet of France scored 30 to take silver.

World number three Florian Peter of Germany took bronze, his first with 34 hits.

"Before the competition I never thought I would have just the one miss, that was not in my mind," Li told insidethegames.

Li is also set to compete at the Asian Games in Hangzhou next month.

"It has the same importance for me as the Olympics, so I am just going to do the hard work every day and I need to relax, and when we get there everything starts from zero again," he said.

There were also quota places for Dai Yoshioka of Japan, who finished fourth with 19 hits.

Denys Kushnirov of Ukraine finished sixth with 13 shots, but also earned a quota place.

Estonia also have a quota place for next year, courtesy of Peeter Olesk, who finished eighth but did not qualify for the final.

China also collected team gold medals for the 25 metre pistol calculated on the scores achieved in individual qualification ©ITG
China also collected team gold medals for the 25 metre pistol calculated on the scores achieved in individual qualification ©ITG

In the team competition, China's score of 1756 equalled the world record for Wang Xinjie, Li Yuehong and Liu Yangpan.

Silver went to Germany's Florian Peter, Oliver Geis and Christian Reitz with 1740 and bronze to South Korea's Song Jong-Ho, Lee Gunhyeok and Kim Seojun with 1739.

Earlier Petr Nymbursky of the Czech Republic had taken gold in the men's prone rifle with a score of 626.5.

Linshu Du of China scored 625.5 for silver.

Jan Lochbihler of Switzerland took bronze scoring 625.

In the team event Norway's Henrik Larsen, Jon Hermann-Hegg and Ole Martin Halvorsen took gold with a combined score of 1,866.0.

Silver was won by Germany's Max Braun, Maximilian Dallinger and David Koenders with a score of 1,864.5.

Bronze went to China, with the combined score of Du, Tian Jiaming and Yu Hao 1,863.4.