Shooting at the 1924 Summer Olympics – Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol

Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol
at the Games of the VIII Olympiad
Men's 25 metre rapid fire pistol; at the Games of the VIII Olympiad
	Shooting pictogram
Venue	Le Stand de Tir de Versailles
Date	28 June
Competitors	55 from 17 nations
Winning score	18
Medalists
	← 1920 1932 →

The men's ISSF 25 meter rapid fire pistol was a shooting sports event held as part of the Shooting at the 1924 Summer Olympics programme. It was the fifth appearance of the event (including the "muzzle-loading pistol" in 1896, the 20 metre pistol in 1900, 30 metre "dueling pistol" in 1912, and 30 metre "revolver" in 1920). The competition was held on 28 June 1924 at the shooting ranges at Versailles. 55 shooters from 17 nations competed.^[2] Nations were limited to four shooters each. Henry Bailey won the United States' second consecutive championship in the event (though separated by 12 years). Sweden also earned the same medal as in 1912, with Vilhelm Carlberg's silver. Lennart Hannelius took bronze in Finland's debut in the event.

Background

This was the fifth appearance of what would become standardised 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 open to women from 1968 to 1980.^[3] The first five events were quite different, with the 1924 competition being the first that closely resembled a modern rapid fire pistol competition. The scoring system in 1924 was quite different from current scoring, however.

Eleven nations competed in the event for the first time: Argentina, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, Finland, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and Portugal. France, Great Britain, Greece, and the United States each made their third appearance in the event, tied for most of any nation.

Switzerland withdrew due to their pistols having too much recoil and their team being unable to afford the pistols used by other teams.^[4]

Competition format

The format was 18 shots in 3 series of 6 shots each. For each series, there were six separate standing silhouette targets that appeared for 10 seconds; the score for the string was how many targets were hit (there were no scoring rings). Maximum score was thus 18, 1 per shot. Ties were broken through additional series of shots, with the time reduced to 8 seconds per series. One series was shot at a time until the tie was broken.^[4]^[5]

Schedule

Date	Time	Round
Saturday, 28 June 1924		Final

Results

A maximum of four competitors per nation were allowed. Three strings of six targets shot within ten seconds for a total of 18 targets. Afterwards for shoot-offs a string of six shots within eight seconds for six targets will keep being repeated until all ties are broken. The exact results of the shoot offs are unknown except order of elimination and the gold medal shoot-off.

Seven shoot-offs were needed to determine the gold medalist. Bailey's gun jammed after his first shot, but he coolly pulled the spent case out of the breech, and got off the five shots required in what remained of his eight-second time limit.^[6]^[4]

Rank	Shooter	Nation	Total	Notes
	Henry Bailey	United States	18	Won in seventh tie-breaker (6 hits)
	Vilhelm Carlberg	Sweden	18	Eliminated in seventh tie-breaker (4 hits)
	Lennart Hannelius	Finland	18	Eliminated in fifth tie-breaker
4	Lorenzo Amaya	Argentina	18	Eliminated in fourth tie-breaker
5	Matías Osinalde	Argentina	18	Eliminated in third tie-breaker
6	Arnaud de Castelbajac	France	18	Eliminated in second tie-breaker
7	Unio Sarlin	Finland	18	Eliminated in second tie-breaker
8	Einar Liberg	Norway	18	Eliminated in second tie-breaker
9	André de Schonen	France	17
	Bernard Betke	United States	17
	William Frazer	United States	17
	William Whaling	United States	17
	Charles Bounton	Great Britain	17
	Marian Borzemski	Poland	17
	Eric Carlberg	Sweden	17
	António Martins	Portugal	17
	Francisco Mendonça	Portugal	17
	Manuel Solis	Mexico	17
	Krikor Agathon	Egypt	17
	Jean Theslöf	Finland	17
21	Charles Riotteau	France	16
	Charles Mackie	Great Britain	16
	Jalo Autonen	Finland	16
	Víctor Bigand	Argentina	16
	François Marits	Netherlands	16
	Georges de Crequi-Montfort	France	16
	Stanisław Kowalczewski	Poland	16
	Walerian Maryański	Poland	16
	Alexandros Theofilakis	Greece	16
30	Sten Forselius	Sweden	15
	Rezső Velez	Hungary	15
	António Montez	Portugal	15
	Tirso Hernández	Mexico	15
	Dingenis de Wilde	Netherlands	15
	Sikke Bruinsma	Netherlands	15
	Carlos Balestrini	Argentina	15
37	Emilio Piersantelli	Italy	14
	Georgios Moraitinis	Greece	14
	Emil Werner	Czechoslovakia	14
40	Philip Griffiths	Great Britain	13
	Victor Robert	Belgium	13
	François Lafortune, Sr.	Belgium	13
	Ioannis Theofilakis	Greece	13
	António Ferreira	Portugal	13
	Jan van Balkum	Netherlands	13
	Josef Pavlík	Czechoslovakia	13
47	Elemér Takács	Hungary	12
	Bolesław Gościewicz	Poland	12
	Jaroslav Mach	Czechoslovakia	12
50	Jacques Thuriaux	Belgium	11
51	Giovanni Scarella	Italy	8
51	Paul Van Asbroeck	Belgium	8
53	Sándor Prokopp	Hungary	7
	Georgios Vafeiadis	Greece	7
	Josef Kruz	Czechoslovakia	7

References

^ "Historical Results". issf-sports.org. International Shooting Sport Federation. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
^ "Shooting at the 1924 Paris Summer Games: Men's Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres". sports-reference.com. Archived from the original on 17 April 2020. Retrieved 23 December 2014.
^ "Muzzle-Loading Pistol, 25 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
^ ^a ^b ^c "Rapid-Fire Pistol, 25 metres, Men". Olympedia. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
^ Official Report, p. 574.
^ Wallechinsky, David (1984). The Complete Book of the Olympics. England: Penguin Books. p. 367. ISBN 0140066322.