Tokyo Olympic Games team member, Alex Hoberg, equalled the men's 10m Air Rifle world record when winning the Open event at the Wingfield Grand Prix In Adelaide yesterday.
Competing in the final Performance Series event before the 15-member Australian team enters a 14-day Pre-Tokyo Olympic Games Staging camp in Brisbane next Sunday, the Adelaide athlete equalled the world record of 252.8 points set by China's Haonan Yu at the Rio World Cup in 2019.
Unfortunately, Hoberg's score will not be officially recognised as an equal world record as the mark was not performed at an International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) event or at an Olympic Games.
However, Hoberg's score eclipse the Australian record of 252.0 set by Tokyo Olympic Games team-mate, Jack Rossiter, at the Target Rifle Australia National Championships in Shepparton in April.
Hoberg's score was 4.4 points higher than the gold medal winning score of 248.4 points set by Russia's Sergey Kamesnkiy at the 2018 ISSF World Championships.
At the Wingfield Grand Prix, Hoberg defeated Rossiter (252.1 points) by a slender 0.7 points with Olympian Dane Sampson (230.0) placed third.
In a world class performance, Rossiter led Hoberg by a mere 0.1 points with the final two shots of the 24 shot final remaining.
Hoberg fired 10.5 and a near perfect 10.8 while Rossiter managed scores of 10.1 and 10.4 to finish with a personal best score for the event.
Hoberg, aged 20, is the youngest member of the Australian Olympic Shooting team but will arrive in Tokyo with previous Games experience having competed at the 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Rio.
Hoberg and Sampson will both contest the 10m Air Rifle and the 10m Air Rifle Mixed Teams events in Tokyo, while Rossiter will compete alongside Sampson in the 50m Rifle 3 Positions event.
In the earlier Open 10m Air Rifle qualifying round, Hoberg managed a world class score of 629.3 points which improved his Australian National Junior record by 0.1 points set in Austria in February, 2020.
Despite his fine score, Hoberg was outpointed in the qualifying round by Tori Rossiter who broke her Australian women's Open and Junior record with a score of 632.2 points.
Rossiter's previous record was 631.5 set in Adelaide earlier this year. In the final, Rossiter was placed seventh.
